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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Kirk Douglas Quotes

If I have to speak in public, I am terrified.

– Kirk Douglas

What would my parents think about America if they arrived here today? Would they even want to come? I wonder.

– Kirk Douglas

I think religion has caused so much catastrophe in the world.

– Kirk Douglas

I never had any desire to be a film actor. I never thought I was the good-looking movie type, which I assumed they wanted.

– Kirk Douglas

Listen – pacemaker, crash, stroke. What does it mean? God doesn’t want me now. That’s all.

– Kirk Douglas

I love talking to interesting people – people like O.J. Simpson, Andretti… I love champions. A champion has something special about him.

– Kirk Douglas

My four sons all knew I was a Jew, but they were allowed to be whatever they wanted to be. The only thing important to me was that they be good people who help other people, because all religion should try to make you a better person and a more caring person. Whenever religion does that for you, it’s a good religion.

– Kirk Douglas

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

– 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

Fifteen years ago, I suffered a stroke, which caused me to lose my speech. Now, what does an actor who can’t talk do? Wait for silent pictures to come back? I work with a speech therapist twice a week.

– Kirk Douglas

My first job was on Broadway. Then I went into the Navy. When I came out of the Navy, I went back to Broadway and a friend of mine, Lauren Bacall, was in Hollywood filming with Humphrey Bogart. She told one of her producers I was great in my play, and he saw it and cast me in ‘The Strange Love of Martha Ivers’.

– Kirk Douglas

Cancer does give you a new rejuvenation. I know what it’s like to be down. I lost a couple of good friends – Larry Hagman and Nick Ashford – who had the same type of cancer that I did, and that makes you think.

– 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

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

– Kirk Douglas

Too often, I have not been what I wanted to be; I’ve succumbed to pressures. Yes, I have. The things I’ve done that I liked, I’ve always done against advice.

– Kirk Douglas

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

– Kirk Douglas

Being second generation in Hollywood is complicated: Success is expected, and yet the track record of the second generation is not great. Only a small group of us, like Jane Fonda, have succeeded.

– Kirk Douglas

God bless Dad, he came to every one of my shows. I was bad, and I had horrible stage fright. My dad was so relieved – he’d say, ‘You were terrible; this kid is not going to be an actor.’ Finally, I did a play and he said, ‘Son – you were really good.’

– Kirk Douglas

When you become a star, you don’t change – everyone else does.

– Kirk Douglas

Acting is a youthful profession.

– Kirk Douglas

I have one computer that my wife gave me. All I know how to do, and I do it every day, is play Spider Solitaire. And I don’t have a cell phone.

– Kirk Douglas

I don’t need a critic to tell me I’m an actor. I make my own way. Nobody’s my boss. Nobody’s ever been my boss.

– Kirk Douglas

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