234 Quotes by Paul Newman

From the very beginning, we bucked tradition. When the experts said that something was “always done” in a certain way, we’d do it our way, which was sometimes the very opposite.

You can’t be as old as I am without waking up with a surprised look on your face every morning: ‘Holy Christ, whaddya know – I’m still around!’ It’s absolutely amazing that I survived all the booze and smoking and the cars and the career.

I’m a very competitive person. I always have been. And it’s hard to be competitive about something as amorphous as acting. But you can be competitive on the track, because the rules are very simple and the declaration of the winner is very concise.

I have taken roads that I wished I had not traveled on. And I’m traveling on some pretty exciting ones, too. Just hope when you get to that great racetrack in the sky, that the balance will tip slightly into those things that you’d be proud of.

Make sure you live life, which means don’t do things where you court celebrity, and give something positive back to our society.

There really is no such thing as a sick child; there are children who happen to be sick. Think about it, and you will understand the magic of the Camps.

I wasn’t driven to acting by any inner compulsion. I was running away from the sporting goods business.

I don’t think there’s anything exceptional or noble in being philanthropic. It’s the other attitude that confuses me.

No sense in being a grifter if it’s the same as being a citizen.