Quotes

Once in one's life, for one mortal moment, one must make a grab for immortality; if not, one has not lived.

That's what Rocky (1976) is all about: pride, reputation, and not being another bum in the neighborhood.

I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.

[Explaining to The New York Times how he wrote the script for Rocky (1976) in three days] I'm astounded by people who take 18 years to write something. That's how long it took that guy [Gustave Flaubert] to write "Madame Bovary". And was that ever on the best-seller list? No. It was a lousy book and it made a lousy movie.

[In 1976, after completing production on Rocky II (1979)] But there'll never be a "Rocky IV." You gotta call a halt.

I'm not right wing, I'm not left wing. I love my country.

[on Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for Governor of California in 2003] I think it's very dangerous waters. In that particular field you can't yell "Action!" and "Cut!" and "Take two!" and "Take three!". I personally think actors should remain actors, but I know he's always had blind ambition for that, so maybe it'll work out for him.

[Talking about the proliferation of guns in the U.S., following the murder of Phil Hartman in 1998, who was shot to death by his wife] Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you're gonna have. It's pathetic. It really is pathetic. It's sad. We're living in the Dark Ages over there. It has to be stopped, and someone really has to go on the line, a certain dauntless political figure, and say, "It's ending, it's over, all bets are off." It's not 200 years ago, we don't need this any more, and the rest of the world doesn't have it. Why should we?

I had no idea Ellen Barkin was in the restaurant. If she was coughing or dying, she was doing it politely. I would have been more than happy to reach down her throat or squeeze her hard. Sat there dumbfounded? Please! I would have rallied round - just to avoid paying the bill.

[1991] I'm 5'10" and weigh 177 pounds. I'm pleased with my body now.

People accept Rocky Balboa as authentic. I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and asked about my boxing career. It's like they really want to believe that Rocky exists. You know, I'm amazed by all of this. At one time I thought people would get over their fascination with the character and move on. Didn't happen. After 30 years, Rocky has taken hold to a degree I never could have imagined.

[Following John Ritter's death in 2003] It's a huge shock. It just makes me realize how fragile life is.

I'm not a genetically superior person. I built my body.

[2002] We're talking about doing another Rambo because I think it's time to combine action with politics.

I'll just go on playing Rambo and Rocky. Both are money-making machines that can't be switched off.

I'm a very physical person. People don't credit me with much of a brain, so why should I disillusion them?

[1999] After I made Cop Land (1997) in which I played a timid, overweight cop, all of Hollywood turned their back. I'm surprised they even gave me this table. I'm like driftwood in here.

I know I cannot hold on to them forever, but I will as long as I can. I pity the first boy to knock on the door for a date. I'm gonna buy ten more Rambo outfits just to make sure they're too scared to put a foot wrong. They will probably all run a mile, which suits me just fine. I know I won't be able to help myself playing the worried dad. My girls were born with the flirt gene. It's very funny, but it also worries me about what a handful I will have in a few years time. I know it's stupid - I just don't want them to grow up. I love my family. I can't imagine life without them all in the house.

I really am a manifestation of my own fantasy.

All art, in this business, is a matter of compromise. It's not one man's vision unless he takes very weak actors.

I'd say between 3 pm and 8 pm I look great. After that it's all downhill. Don't photograph me in the morning or you're gonna get Walter Brennan.

No one likes to fail at anything, but I believe I'm a better person for it. I learned life's lessons. You're given certain gifts and that's what you should try to be.

[on his marriage to Jennifer Flavin] It's been a fantastic revival of my life. As you know, my first marriage didn't go so well, though I have a relationship with my sons, but this marriage has been a second beginning. I used to think my career was number one, so I was gone nine months out of a year, but I learned the hard way that the most important thing is that you start at home and then comes the career.

I think the people who have been so supportive and loyal will be happy with the final chapter in Rocky Balboa's life because I think we bring the character to a final and noble conclusion.

I enjoy comedy very much, but it just wasn't right for me. Sometimes it's better to just stay focused and do what you're really passionate about.

You wake up one morning and you go, "What happened? Where did it all go so fast? There are many more things I want to do." And I figure a lot of people feel the same. A lot of people have so much they want to do, but society says, "Step back, youth must be served." I say, "You're right, youth must be served - after us. Get in line. We're coming back for seconds and thirds, and when we're finished helping ourselves, it's your turn." Just because people get older doesn't mean they abandon their dream or their ability to want to do something, so Rocky is symbolic of still wanting to participate. Rocky says the last thing to age is the heart, so I wanted to do a film that shows our generation is not on the outside looking in; it's still vital and wants to be part of the parade, not watching the parade. I want to show that life is not over at 50. People say, "Come on, grow old gracefully." No, why? I'm not ready. I know people will think Rocky is my story, but it's also my generation's story.

[on Rocky Balboa (2006)] I knew I would go through the embarrassment of hearing all the jokes about me. My wife begged me not to do it, and that's why I wrote a line . . . that I'd rather do something I love badly than to feel bad about not doing something I love.

[on Rocky Balboa (2006) and Rambo (2008)] Maybe these movies wouldn't have been as interesting five years ago, but look what's happened in the world in that time. It's a whole different climate, now.

I'm now starting Rambo (2008) and I'm looking for a young actor to star opposite me. I've been looking for the next Robert Mitchum or Steve McQueen, but the fact is they just don't exist. Tough guys today are getting their hair done at Hollywood hairdressers. Whatever happened to having a beer and scratching your balls?

[on Rhinestone (1984)] You'd have thought we all got together and decided how we could fastest ruin our careers.

I abused my body so much throughout my career that I am literally held together by glue. The stuff I took thickens the bones and reinforces the tendons.

I never had extraordinary genes or great bone structure, and I'm still very thin. What I try to do is create a body that every man can look at and say, "You know, with a certain amount of dedication I can achieve the same thing." I try to keep it in the realm of athletic, rather than unapproachable.

[speaking of his life with a wife and three daughters] Living in a house where you are the only man is a little like being the only guy left at The Alamo. They just rule. Even our dogs are female. So there is no chance.

There's something about matching the character with the script. And right now, the script that's being written, and reality, is pretty brutal and pretty hard-edged, like a rough action film, and you need somebody who's been in that to deal with it. - On Senator John McCain.

I look back on Judge Dredd (1995) as a real missed opportunity. It seemed that lots of fans had a problem with Dredd removing his helmet, because he never does in the comic books. But, for me, it is more about wasting such great potential there was in that idea... it didn't live up to what it could have been. It probably should have been much more comic, really humourous, and fun. What I learned out of that experience was that we shouldn't have tried to make it "Hamlet", it's more "Hamlet & Eggs".

If I have a regret, it's that I didn't expand my acting when I was building my career. It often sounds pathetic when you hear actors say that they feel sorry for themselves - I've been very very blessed, believe me - but if I had to do it all over again I could have done both. You can do commercial films and then do small, independent, acting films. Bruce Willis has done it well, so it's possible. I wish I had done it, but that wasn't the style back then. You were either a studio actor or an independent actor. So I regret that.

I'm often asked whether Rocky is an extension of myself. But the truth is I wish I could be as noble as Rocky. He never says a bad word about anyone, and he never complains. He's lost 24 times, his record is 54 and 24, he's lost a lot but he's philosophical and knows there will be another day. I'm not that. I wish I were.

Rocky gives out such a good vibe, while Rambo's the Prince of Darkness. The new Rambo is not a feelgood movie. Every actor would like to say that they're Daniel Day-Lewis and that they have this incredible palette, but quite often you're known for certain things. I accepted that. So I said to myself, "Boy, if I could end my career on something, I'd like to finish up the loose ends on Rambo, because the last one in Afghanistan didn't work."

Making Victory (1981) (aka Escape to Victory) was hard work. I thought Rocky (1976) was tough, but I'd never trained so hard in my life. My waist went down from 33 to 29 inches; I ran every morning, because I was trying to look a little gaunt. We were POWs, after all.

During Rocky IV (1985), Dolph Lundgren had hit me so hard I had swelling around the heart and had to stay in intensive care at St. John's Hospital for four days.

[at Rambo UK Premiere, 2008) I feel like I'm 20 again - but with arthritis!

[on Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008)] Mickey, if anybody deserves an Oscar, it's you. No question about it. You lived it. You earned it. You deserve it. You're an incredibly talented man. It's about time everyone says, 'You know what? Give it to the winner.'

[on what fans can expect from The Expendables (2010)] Let's say we dug up The Wild Bunch (1969) and gave them one more shot.

The whole thing about Rocky (1976) wasn't about him boxing. It was about aging -- that was what made the movie. It wasn't him. It was about her -- him finding love, him making someone's life better -- and, before you know it, the audience identified with it.

[on The Expendables (2010)] I guess it's kinda like The Dirty Dozen (1967), or one of those films that comes along every once in a while, like The Magnificent Seven (1960), to try to take that old formula and move it into a modern era. We accomplished it; I'm very, very happy with the film.

The trouble with remakes is that people fall in love with the original. It's like peanut butter. If you try to change the taste of peanut butter, you're in trouble.

[on the character of Rocky Balboa] I have always seen him as a 20th Century gladiator in a pair of sneakers.

95% of the time, women are right. They can be emotional, but when they say your shoes are shit or your tie is wrong, they're often right.

[on the difference between filmmaking and painting] Movies are a vision dependent upon 300 or 400 people to accomplish it. So there's great compromising. And so much is lost in the translation. So when you get up there, it's maybe 40% of the way you envisaged it. Because of the finance thing, and the actor doesn't interpret it properly. Or the director isn't on form that day and he missed the whole point. Whereas painting is all you do. It either soars or it crashes. There's no one to blame but one person.

[on Arnold Schwarzenegger] He's my best friend now. It's strange, given what big rivals we used to be. He's still ridiculously competitive, though. See this watch? This is the only one of its kind in the world, so I wore it to our last lunch. Arnold was desperate for me to get him one but I had to explain that wasn't possible. He was so mad!