Sterling Hayden Quotes

In fact, there are only two things in this world that I’m crazy about, boats arid women.

I never liked the movie life. I was in it to raise enough money to buy my schooner.

I don’t remember even having spoken a piece in Sunday school.

As a child I was told if I was ever given ruled paper I should write across the lines. And that’s what I’ve done, traveling the roads with the least traffic.

It’s a presumptuous thing to write one’s autobiography, but this is really an effort in the deepest sense to explore the struggle of a tortured individual to be himself in a hostile society.

I think my opinion of Hollywood must stem from my own, philosophy as a man.

For us to support the liquidation of a simple life in a large part of the world is not a particularly attractive prospect.

Only when a film comes along that I really believe in like this one will I turn to acting.

I felt reluctant accepting the very lucrative and easy life Hollywood had offered me. All of it planted a seed: If I could do something about the conditions of the world, I could probably justify my position as an actor.

I don’t call myself a writer, much as I’d love to be. An author, maybe – the novel ‘Voyage’ made $870,000. Writer, no. Nor am I an actor. I was never on the stage.

I brag like hell when I’m confident of what I’m doing. Back when I was sailing ships for a living, I would take a schooner up to San Francisco – I had my master’s certificate at 22 – and I would tell myself, ‘There isn’t a man in the world can do this better ‘n I can.’ And I meant it.

There’s nothing wrong with being an actor, if that’s what a man wants. But there’s everything wrong with achieving an exalted status, simply because one photographs well and is able to handle dialogue put in one’s mouth by others.

Actually, I wish I did nothing but write. Acting takes a lot of heat off of me monetarily but it puts a lot of beat on me emotionally.

I’ve been offered the role of Franklin Roosevelt, and I wouldn’t presume to undertake it.

I work in pictures when I have to. In 1979 that was one day’s work.

Tahiti is now completely occupied by materialistic ideas and I think it is wrong.

I was navigator on the Gloucester schooner ‘Gertrude L. Thebaud’ in the International Fisherman’s race. That’s a big thing in New England – the race, I mean. A Boston newspaper man covered it, and saw me on board. For a long time I wished he hadn’t! He wrote a piece saying I ought to be in motion pictures.

At heart, I’m not an actor, I’m an accident.

I was surprised when they sent me to Hollywood, Then I thought as soon as they discovered my 14 fathom greenness, I’d be out on my ear. But everything kept going.

Tahiti has always been like a girl. She should be approached with caution, taking plenty of time and be enjoyed. Instead tourists with plenty of money are flinging themselves on the island and destroying the place.

Bahamians are wonderful seamen.

You become trapped doing bad movies. And, the thing that makes it difficult to stop making them is that you get good money.

When I was a kid and getting paid to stand in front of a camera. I used to spend a lot of my time just laughing inside about the whole thing. It wasn’t real to me. I couldn’t act and I damn well knew it. I kept expecting someone to see the joke and call the whole thing off at any moment. Fortunately, no one ever did.

Sooner or later a man has simply got to do what he thinks is right, no matter what other people, or the courts, or his friends, or his enemies, or God himself may tell him.

I started at the top and worked my way down.

The number of fights in movies is haywire.

I realize now that it is a serious business requiring honest, hard work. The first time Hollywood was served up to me on a silver platter. I’ve finally gotten rid of the platter.

I always hated acting but I kept on acting.

All I need is a place to put my things, somewhere to lay a mattress.

Out of 35 pictures I made, 30 were ridiculous.

John Brown was one of my longtime heroes, and it was with no little amount of temerity that I accepted the role. There are some things I am hesitant about, and playing a hero of mine is one of them.

I have no respect for acting where I’m concerned.

I ran away to sea. I know that only happens in fiction. But it’s what I did.

I’m an alcoholic.

You can measure a man’s capacity by the depth of his mistakes.

When they saddle the leading man with violence it makes the characters look weak. If a man is a heroic type he doesn’t have to resort to violence. How many successful men in the world have to settle problems with their fists?

I got stardom too easily. I didn’t appreciate the breaks. But that’s all behind me now.

I feel sometimes as though I’ve never grown up. And that’s great, because it means there are still possibilities. Nothing’s free. You pay for whatever you get. But that’s OK, because you can’t be cheated.

I am an expert in loneliness and have wandered around a great deal.

Once I tried to do Jack London’s ‘Sea Wolf’ as a picture. I wanted to film most of the scenes at sea but ran into opposition from those who wanted studio sets.

I live and work for the pure enjoyment of being alive.

You can’t just run away from everything.

If you stop to think, the only films that don’t include at least one punch in -the jaw are musical comedies. And even then some of those villains get brained in the middle of an aria.

I don’t guess anybody likes the idea of being locked up.

Audiences may not realize it, but heroes and leading men always depend on their muscles to get out of jams. They don’t have to slug a guy in the mouth to solve a problem, but it’s always hinted that he can fight like the heavyweight champ if he has to.