Kirk Douglas Quotes

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Kirk Douglas

Profession : Actor

Birth : December 9, 1916

Virtue is not photogenic. What is it to be a nice guy? To be nothing, that's what. A big fat zero with a smile for everybody.

Kirk Douglas

I have studied religion, and I have concluded that there is some power. We don't understand it.

Kirk Douglas

I guess I was a bad boy... Yes, yes, I've had lots of women in my life.

Kirk Douglas

No matter how bad things are, they can always be worse. So what if my stroke left me with a speech impediment? Moses had one, and he did all right.

Kirk Douglas

The learning process continues until the day you die.

Kirk Douglas

Fear is a terrible thing. It makes you do awful things.

Kirk Douglas

When I first came to Hollywood, the blacklist was just starting, and they were having hearings in Washington. What most people don't know is the judge of these hearings himself was later convicted of misappropriation. 'Spartacus' helped break the blacklist, because Spartacus was a real character.

Kirk Douglas

Acting is make-believe. I never believe I'm the character; I want you to believe.

Kirk Douglas

I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up.

Kirk Douglas

People are composed of many things, and in my work, what influences me is the complexity of people - the chiaroscuro of dark and light. When I play a strong guy, I try to find, where is he weak? And, conversely, when I play a weak guy, where is he strong?

Kirk Douglas

Why can't a woman be more like a dog, huh? So sweet, loving, attentive.

Kirk Douglas

My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them.

Kirk Douglas

Fame is as much about luck as it is about talent, perhaps more.

Kirk Douglas

Love has more depth as you get older.

Kirk Douglas

When you become a star, you don't change - everyone else does.

Kirk Douglas

If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.

Kirk Douglas

Virtue is not photogenic, so I liked playing bad guys. But, whenever I played a bad guy, I tried to find something good in him, and that kept my contact with the audience.

Kirk Douglas

All my life, I have taken inventory at intervals. For example, when I became a movie actor and suddenly I had to deal with fame, money and playing so many roles, I lost myself. I said, 'Who am I?' And I wrote my first book to deal with that, 'The Ragman's Son.'

Kirk Douglas

People are always talking about the old days. They say that the old movies were better, that the old actors were so great. But I don't think so. All I can say about the old days is that they have passed.

Kirk Douglas

Now, what does an actor who can't talk do? Wait for silent pictures to come back?

Kirk Douglas