The characters I’ve played, especially Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford, almost never use a gun, and they always try to use their wits instead of their fists. – James Garner
When I started working, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, in that I was just wandering around, hoping that I could succeed. Then after I got a little under my belt, it took me about 25 years to feel like I knew what I was doing. – James Garner
Acting is just common sense. It isn’t hard if you put yourself aside and just do what the writer wrote. – James Garner
Too many actors have run for office. There’s one difference between me and them: I know I’m not qualified. – James Garner
People who don’t know me think I’m easy-going, but I’m a pessimist by nature and an old curmudgeon. – James Garner
I don’t take success very well, because I know it’s fleeting. And the next day, it can all fall apart. I know that, too. So I don’t get too high, and I don’t get too low. You get through the world a lot easier that way. – James Garner
The only reason I’m an actor is that a lady pulled out of a parking space in front of a producer’s office. – James Garner
I’ve been on the wrong end of violence, and I’ve done violence myself… I refuse to glorify violence in my movie and television roles. – James Garner
It wasn’t until I’d turned 50 and had been in the business 25 years that I realized I might actually have a career as an actor. – James Garner
What was I qualified to do to make a living? Nothing. You don’t need qualifications as an actor or a politician. And I didn’t want to be a politician. – James Garner
Everybody wants blockbusters. I like to see a few pictures now and then that have to do with people and have relationships, and that’s what I want to do films about. I don’t want to see these sci-fi movies, and I don’t want to do one of those. I don’t understand it. – James Garner