Top 309 Quotes & Sayings by Sylvester Stallone - Page 5

I really have very little aspirations about acting because I think that probably the best things have come and gone. I would like to focus on writing and directing. I love writing and directing even though writing can be incredibly painful and lonely. I get great satisfaction from doing it.

If I'd succeeded right away at acting I wouldn't have sought out writing.

Boxing is the only sport where you have the audience coming right up to you and saying, "You Stink." And you got to deal with that. It's like being in front of the lions.

Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can't even hold a job PARKING CARS!

I'm astounded by people who take eighteen years to write something. That's how long it took that guy to write Madame Bovary, and was that ever on the best-seller list?

I never started out to be an action actor. I was an ensemble actor.

Polo is like tennis - you literally have to live it.

Boxing is a great way to vent. I don't know if there is a better way, I think for women too. There is something so primal about it and it's the best exercise in the world, even if you don't ever get in the ring.

The man who can best gets along with women, is the man who can get along without them.

Every rep I did on chin-ups, on squats with 500 pounds, I never said, to myself, 'Oh, my God, another rep.' I said, 'Yes, another rep, because that will make my dream turn into a reality.'

When people meet me they’re often surprised. I talk a great deal.

I started out as an actor, but I forced myself to be a writer, even though I wasn't very good at it and had never written. I don't think I ever passed an English course in my life. My first eight to 10 scripts were pretty horrendous, but I stayed at it, stayed at it, and stayed at it, until I eventually found a voice and a subject like Rocky that people were interested in.

I love being so tight on people in close-ups that the veins in their eyes look like the Mississippi River.

I think everyone has questions in their mind. Did they do their very best?

I think I came along at an opportune time. I don't know if that would happen anymore, because the whole way of doing business in Hollywood has changed.

In fact, every day I'll read a chapter of some art book. I don't know why. It's just a habit.

Years ago I was diagnosed with a condition and my doctors prescribed human growth hormone and testosterone for its treatment. Under medical supervision I have continued to use both medications.

That's the hardest thing about doing sequels - you've lost the element of surprise.

Rocky would definitely run for councilman. Maybe mayor. But these people are actually most effective in the family unit. That's where they shine.

I've done my "mind over matter" movies, and I think probably that people aren't really interested in seeing me do that anymore. I think I'm kind of past my prime to do dramatic films. I think it'd become kind of like almost a pathetic cry out to be recognized as a serious drama actor.

I do believe that American should deal from strength.

The world meets nobody halfway. When you want something, you gotta take it.

You cannot train yourself. I feel the same way about Christianity and about what the church is: The church is the gym of the soul.

I think there's something about being a neophyte that's refreshing and hard to duplicate; it brings about real innovation. Innovation usually comes about through blind ignorance.

I feel that America is like a child that grew up so strong and so fast and so tall that it became self-conscious about its size and started to stoop over so as not to offend anyone.

Action film is really easy to do, you just get in a car and smash through things and it's called action. The real key is what happens between the action when it's quiet. Loud is easy. Quiet, real hard.

I would never run for president.

I think I'd like to be remembered as someone who beat the odds through just plain determination. ... that I persevered. Because I think that being somewhat of a pest to life, constantly plaguing and pursuing, will bring results.

The champion's management says let's do this for real, for charity. Rocky says no but decides to be true to himself even though he's going to be berated by everyone. Just to compete, not to win.

It's great the way the old-time directors used to manipulate the hell out of you. You see someone dying and all of a sudden a ghost would come out and they go walking hand in hand up the stairway.

The character of Rocky was built on the idea that he was chosen to do something. That's why the first image in Rocky is the picture of Christ.

I wanted to show I had balls at age 60.

I wish my daughters would box. I'm so worried about the guys coming up to them. I would love them to be able to smack a guy right off a bar stool.

The men in Vietnam weren't allowed to fight the war with any kind of concern to win by the government. It was like a war of attrition.

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.

When I was cognizant of the war, I was very angry at the street-corner liberals who were trying to defame the footsoldier. Because there was a man who had no choice. He was a cog in the wheel, just trying to survive. I was always aware of that.

The idea that boxing lends itself to cinema so well is because it's usually a morality play - good against evil, insecurity and triumph, fear strikes out, so the audience can really get drawn into the drama of it. Also, it was sensual and very primal. I think subliminaly we do two things - life is a fight, life is a struggle and we understand that from our early, early, early ancestors, and life is a race.

And if I look at my icebox, there's no way I'm sitting there looking like Gandhi. I mean, I don't have crickets in there and little green rice. No, I mean it's a pretty liberal icebox. It's all in there.

I try to tell people that just because you're buff and cut doesn't mean you're healthy.

I just want to say that, all you do, no matter how bad your diet is, for the first six months or year, I just reduce the amount, even if it's horrible stuff. That you can deal with it.

Everyone has this conjecture that action films are somewhat less prestigious than dramatic films. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've done them both and this is hard and dangerous.

Some people maybe try to justify their laziness. You take out what you put in and the more I go to church and the more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus, and to listening to his word and have him guide my hand I feel the pressure's off me.

No one's life is totally morbid. Even on a subtle scale there's little flashes of enlightenment and of happiness and joy.

If you come into my house, I'm going to fight much more viciously to get you out than if we were on a neutral piece of land.

When you are young, you often think that the world spins around you. You think you can do anything, can take the world on your shoulders.

Often people going into directing want to learn as much as they possibly can about "technique." And I say the hell with that.

I've always said that the artist dies twice. And the first death is the hardest which is the career death, the creative death. The physical death is an inevitability.

I've always boxed a certain way. But with Rocky, the character himself had to be kind of awkward. So I had to learn to fight that way.

I understand that a lot of other actors don't have a choice. They have to eat so they need to work and they'll do films that they're not so proud of. But I've been fortunate enough to be given a second wind, so I try to pick projects I know will provide the audience the kind of escapism they want from me.

Children are the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. It hurts me to be away from them for a few hours. It really does. I love them and they're girls, so they know how to push my buttons. But I've learned a lot and I have to thank my wife for that.

To be really artful, though, you have to be subjective and so singular.

I guess the best thing I do of all is ride. Horsemanship, I have a natural flair for it.

Training and working in Philadelphia is a very unusual situation because that city does believe that Rocky is real. No one calls me Sylvester, it's Rocky.

Sometimes worst enemies like a Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier that's what makes you fight so hard. Without them they never would have achieved greatness.

The idea of Rambo is kind of intriguing as a closing chapter. When you shoot a film as a sequel to do another sequel it's a whole other tone. But when you know it's the final chapter you try and put in there as much emotion, understanding and closure as you can. So, whereas Rocky is a lighter character and optimistic, Rambo is much darker.

You can actually alter a person's perception when they're that young. I mean, it can affect them in a very positive way.

I'd live in a museum if I could. I used to spend hours and hours in the Museum of Modern Art.

The one thing in my films, I only kill people who need to be killed, or killers killing killers. And I believe that the violence is very justifiable.

Lighting can bring out certain contours in the body, in the face, in the eyes, that otherwise flat lighting couldn't.

It's funny because when Jason [Statham] was drowning I was filming with an iPhone. It may have been a bit insensitive but I just thought, "you know what, this was a magic moment". And I couldn't help him anyway because I didn't want to drown.