Top 50 Quotes & Sayings by James Woods

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor James Woods.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
James Woods

James Howard Woods is an American actor. He is known for his work in various film, stage, and television productions. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway. In 1972, he appeared in The Trial of the Catonsville Nine alongside Sam Waterston and Michael Moriarty on Broadway. In 1972 he won the Theatre World Award for his performance in Moonchildren. In 1978, Woods made his television breakthrough alongside Meryl Streep, playing her husband in the critically acclaimed four-part miniseries Holocaust. The series went on to receive the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series. After his film debut in Elia Kazan's The Visitors, he starred in supporting roles on films, including Sydney Pollack's The Way We Were and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975).

I think that the economy, and the political system, has literally become such a disaster I don't know if it's possible to save it.
I think it's safe to say people are going to be interested in Kim Kardashian's love choices for the next 30 years. But they can take a minute to think about the new robotic arm that could replace the one they lost to cancer. Then they can keep thinking about Kim Kardashian.
I am one of those guys who could do the most emotional scene and crack a joke instantly. I'm lucky. I'm just like an idiot savant. I have one enormously enjoyable, pleasurable - for me - talent, which is being able to act.
I've had wonderfully lucrative offers to do another network series. I could do that again and have a very luscious retirement. — © James Woods
I've had wonderfully lucrative offers to do another network series. I could do that again and have a very luscious retirement.
My biggest problem in live games is that I love the game so much and I don't think I ever met a poker player I didn't fundamentally like - even if they're screaming and they're acting like real jerks.
The whole world has gone back to something we are genetically engineered to do - communicating through symbols.
I just love poker players.
Celebrity - I don't even know what that means. Obviously it's the same basic word as celebration, but I don't know what's being celebrated.
The bottom line is to be in control of your own destiny.
I'm absolutely gonna win it, because I'm ruthless. I sit at the poker table and my job is to destroy people.
If someone is not tech savvy, I have no time for them. I've always been a big believer in looking forward.
We work in an environment where your options are to do, you know, Batman 10, so when you get to do a movie that's a really great film like this, people really step up to the plate and enjoy it.
I think the iPhone was as significant an invention as the Gutenburg press, in terms of the future of humanity.
I'm a pretty quiet guy, but if people want to think of me as a lady killer, I guess that's good. — © James Woods
I'm a pretty quiet guy, but if people want to think of me as a lady killer, I guess that's good.
Do you think I want to be the one lone voice against the Hollywood liberal establishment? It's not going to do me any good.
If you strive for the moon, maybe you'll get over the fence.
Sometimes the way you respond to horrific, evil deeds is the measure of one's self as a man, as a nation, as people, as a community.
My parents loved each other. I was raised in a house of total love and respect. My dad worked very hard and my mother was incredibly devoted to him. I can unequivocally, without any peradventure of doubt, tell you that I was raised with the kind of love that we only dream of.
So you can say whatever you want and quote me however you want about politics and make the next payday, and that's fine because I'm making that deal with you, but just mention the movie along the way, OK?
It's a great battle, and it really is a battle, and there are people from all walks of life, you know, never judge anybody at the table: A man can be the greatest poker player and he might know all the numbers, but he might get beaten by a really savvy kid who works in a grocery store; and that's what's so great about this game.
I always have a rule that acting is acting and truth is truth and you just go out there and you do it. But what happens in each medium is that you have other responsibilities. The acting remains the same, but each medium dictates assuming other halves to make the acting work.
The silent killer of all great men and women of achievement - particularly men, I don't know why, maybe it's the testosterone - I think it's narcissism. Even more than hubris. And for women, too. Narcissism is the killer.
Without a doubt, if I had it to do all over again, I would do whatever it takes to be a one-person studio. You need to learn how to write so you can control the material. If you own the material, you can do it all.
My attitude about Hollywood is that I wouldn't walk across the street to pull one of those executives out of the snow if he was bleeding to death. Not unless I was paid for it. None of them ever did me any favors.
I'm famous for being nicer to my fans than anyone on the face of the Earth because I figure a) They pay my salary, and b) It's probably like a big moment in your life to meet somebody so I would say, just come on up.
I look back on my life and have to face the fact that I have been narcissistic and selfish.
The lifeblood of my career has been independent film.
Because of who I am, when I sit at a poker table, I meet people who engage me in conversation, not only about poker, but also about the movie business and about the world of celebrities.
No matter what it is, if you get 10 people in the business talking about something, you get 10 different opinions, but you know, they're amazingly well informed.
If General Motors can't survive and run their business like a business, let them go under.
The press is like a big bass, you just stick a hook in their mouth and they'll take it.
I was able to lean on people for favors and things to help out because their budget was so low. It was half of what John Travolta's perk package is on a film. Our whole budget was half of what his staff makes on a film.
If I say I'm the best actor for the part, I mean it and I'm not kidding.
Look, just go sit at the card table with the rest of the kids and let the adults run the country. — © James Woods
Look, just go sit at the card table with the rest of the kids and let the adults run the country.
Aficionado my ass...I just love to smoke cigars
I'm famous for being nicer to my fans than anyone on the face of the earth because I figure, a) They pay my salary, and b) It's probably like a big moment in your life to meet somebody; so I would say, 'Just come on up.'
Golfers are genuinely courteous in a discourteous world. Show me a guest on The Jerry Springer Show who's a golfer.
Just curious. Does the president of the United States have any advice for other teenage boys in America? Wounded warriors, for example . . .
...if [the 9/11/01 attacks] had happened to the Russians, about three major cities in the Middle East would have been parking lots in twenty minute and they wouldn't have worried about the consequences because there would not have been any because the remaining terrorist states would have said 'we get the message.'
Give Bush 10 minutes before you hammer him. I think he's going to surprise people. He sounds simple and uncomplicated, but maybe that's what we need now. He's not as stupid as everyone thinks. I like the guy.
I think the great power of Bette Davis was she always knew who she was. She had an obligation to herself and her audience. When you think of what she was compelled to do, the power she put on the screen, the fact that she took upon herself a much greater task.
Filmmaking, like sex, isn't a polite enterprise. It involves a lot of mess and the bottom line is, if somebody ain't screaming, you're not doing your job.
...simple logic tells you that if somebody wants you dead you have one course of action: To get them deader sooner.
The only reason people lock their car doors when Obama walks by is they are afraid he'll tax them to death... — © James Woods
The only reason people lock their car doors when Obama walks by is they are afraid he'll tax them to death...
Achieving success as an actor has not been easy for me. My biggest, probably most irrational complaint has been that I've had to work harder for what I've gotten. I've seen other people with nepotism or wealth or cheesy good looks on their side who've had it easy...
It is okay to fall, but not okay to stay on the ground.
When I was in high school, we were all laboring under the illusion, or maybe it was a reality, that everyone in our school was a virgin.
Here's what I believe a soul is - at least this, I believe it's at least this. I believe that every kindness that we create in our lives, if it came because we were affected by a person we loved and lost, that person lives through that kindness. That's what a soul is.
My second ex-wife was really kind of like a ship passing in the night. Only she turned out to be the Exxon Valdez.
Whatever it took to get elected president of the United States, I don't think being a complete and utter moron is one of those predicates.
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