Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Robert Duvall

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Robert Duvall.
Last updated on December 25, 2024.
Robert Duvall

Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

I always figure from the cradle to the grave, we all have our individual journeys, and maybe my journey was a positive one and I accomplished certain things without stepping on too many toes.
I think there are more good young actors now than ever. It's a medium that everyone wants to be connected with - it is such a hip medium going into the 21st century.
When I knew nothing, I thought I could do anything. — © Robert Duvall
When I knew nothing, I thought I could do anything.
But for me, the challenge is how you turn a character into behavior. Once the director says 'action', you just try to live between those two worlds.
A young actor once asked me, What do you do between jobs? I said, Hobbies, hobbies, and more hobbies.
I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.
The most solitary I ever felt was when I was living in New York. I used to live in Enrico Caruso's old apartment, and I had a special staircase that took me up to the roof. There was nobody up there.
I was fortunate in the last century to be in the two biggest hits film-wise, 'Godfather I' and 'Godfather II,' and 'Lonesome Dove.'
Well, I had a wonderful career.
You just can't take a crash course to be a tango dancer in a movie.
Too many people think that economics is this subject that should wait until the university level. But it can't wait that long.
Around my own friends, I like to mess around.
Sometimes directors will hire you and say, 'Oh, we love your work.' And then they start to tell you how to do it. I say, 'Hey, man, back off. You hired me to do it. Let me do it.'
Some Russian ballet master woman said there's no culture in America, but if you look you can find interesting stuff in this country, don't you think? — © Robert Duvall
Some Russian ballet master woman said there's no culture in America, but if you look you can find interesting stuff in this country, don't you think?
It's like kids playing house: 'You play the father, I'll play the mother.' You know, you dress up, you play, they pay, you go home. It's a game - acting's a game.
Look, Hollywood's a mecca, but it's not the final answer. You pick up a camera anyplace in the world, you can make a movie.
I love working in Texas anywhere.
Hollywood's a mecca, but it's not the final answer. You pick up a camera anyplace in the world, you can make a movie.
I don't have many people showing up at my door. Very few people come out. When they do, I get a little suspicious. I live way up on a hill, way, way back in the country.
Hollywood sometimes tends to patronize the interior of the United States. As Horton Foote used to say, the great Texas playwright, that a lot of people from New York don't know what goes on beyond the South Jersey Shore.
Some people say, 'Do you have any theories on acting?' And I say, well maybe: I think you can start with zero and end with zero. You don't have to go anywhere, you don't have to go for the result.
I can't live without a woman. I have to have a woman, have to have a wife.
We all have a cradle-to-the-grave journey to make and, in between, what do you do? There's got to be something hereafter.
Everybody likes to win.
Spending two years on my uncle's ranch in Montana as a young man gave me the wisdom and the thrust to do westerns.
I love the smell of juice boxes in the morning.
I wouldn't mind starting to ride some more if I had a really good horse to just work a little bit with every day.
You know, Hollywood sometimes tends to patronize the interior of the United States. As Horton Foote used to say, the great Texas playwright, that a lot of people from New York don't know what goes on beyond the South Jersey Shore.
Way, way, way back I played a little bit, but I am definitely not a golfer. You know, it just takes too much time anyway during the course of the day.
Well, I can't live without a woman. I have to have a woman, have to have a wife.
Seeing your name on the list for KP or guard duty when you're in the Army is like reading a bad review.
To this day, I still think Lonesome Dove is my best part.
There was nothing wrong with shouting at God.
I'll keep on acting 'til they wipe the drool. I like the business. I like to do different parts and diverse characters. I haven't lost my enthusiasm yet!
Art is competitive.
You get below the Mason-Dixon line and you have some of the best music, culture, the two races, the literature, and it's so rich.
I can always grow a little bit, and try to do something different. So I'm always looking for what's out there - the potential.
But I think there are more good young actors now than ever. It's a medium that everyone wants to be connected with - it is such a hip medium going into the 21st century. — © Robert Duvall
But I think there are more good young actors now than ever. It's a medium that everyone wants to be connected with - it is such a hip medium going into the 21st century.
It's a cyclical thing. When they make one, everyone loves them. Different genres come around in succession. People always welcome the western. It's America's genre.
Although it wasn't that easy to do, it was wonderful working with John Wayne.
Hollywood is still the mecca for good or bad, but it isn't the beginning or end for filmmaking.
The cultural contrast I saw between religions... Catholics have a lot of mediators, going through saints and Mary or whatever. Protestants in general say things to God directly.
High Noon is a pretty corny movie.
My uncle always said that I could have been a rancher.
I've always liked country music. It's a certain aspect of America that goes back to the British Isles and the influence is very native to America.
One thing I like about Argentina, they only cook with salt; that's it.
As long as they keep offering me some good parts and so forth - there are some parts out there that fit me pretty well - I'll keep going for a while.
I'd like to direct again, but that's really hard to get something and raise the money. It's difficult to find just the right thing.
What people don't understand about Sarah Palin is that she is a rancher's wife. From Alberta down to Texas I've known women like that: good common sense, bright and vilified by city people.
Well, it's like my movie, 'The Apostle.' Some people in the North don't get that movie. They think that, in the South, if you don't shout, you can't play one of those guys.
I hope I left behind a legacy that people will enjoy. But whatever they want to say, I can't predict. — © Robert Duvall
I hope I left behind a legacy that people will enjoy. But whatever they want to say, I can't predict.
You really have to soak up the culture of the people to get it right. If you're making a fiction film, it's entertainment, but you want it to be as real as possible.
God does guide the lives of individuals and does fill them with the Holy Ghost.
I had a wonderful career.
Stripping away artifice - it's the constant standard I aim for in acting, to approximate life. People talk about being bigger than life - but there's nothing bigger than life.
It's no big thing, but you make big things out of little things sometimes.
If you don't have heroes in the beginning, you don't grow.
I always considered myself as a character actor. I always try to be versatile to show different sides of human experience.
The greatest king of Israel, King David, the author of the Psalms, sent a man out to die in battle so that he could sleep with his wife.
I like to do things that I develop from the ground up.
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