Michael Douglas Quotes

Like a lovely orchid, or anything else that's nurtured, marriage prospers and grows, but if it's ignored, it withers.

Capitalism is part of our system, but it's not for the faint of heart.

Out there is nothing but possibilities.

Directors have so much else to do besides tell actors what to do. There are so many issues and problems.

I tell my kids they are going to live to over 100.

Players never die - they just try their luck at another table.

Of course it's important to make mistakes, as long as you grow from them.

There's nothing like a family crisis, especially a divorce, to force a person to re-evaluate his life.

Cancer has shown me what family is. It showed me a love that I never knew really existed.

I've always liked Tina Turner.

My daughter is a horseback rider, so I try to watch her ride; we take holidays together.

Retiring gives the impression that you're relieved that your job is over.

Oh, I get it, it's simple. PG means the hero gets the girl, 15 means that the villain gets the girl, and 18 means everybody gets the girl.

In 'Wall Street,' Charlie Sheen carried that movie.

When I go on a holiday to a tropical place, I'll spray tan before I go.

When you are a celebrity, nothing remains secret for very long.

I haven't played a lot of nice guys.

The so-called 'last golden age,' in the 1970s, most of those movies were independent films.

It took me too long to realise that if you go to a marriage counsellor to resolve problems, it's in his interest to keep the marriage going.

Greed is good! Greed is right! Greed works! Greed will save the U.S.A.!

Directing talent is very nebulous. You know, it's not in front of you like an actor's performance.

My dad was a movie star. Having that name was good and bad. People think it's a silver spoon. It's not.

Paul Rudd is ripped.

I've never been one to carefully calculate my career decisions, to sit on the outside looking in. I go with my passion and what moves me.

If your work isn't exciting, doesn't stir the emotions, where's the challenge? Where's the progress if you always play it safe?

My movies are usually about stripping off the makeup, getting down to the skeleton.

Religion has certainly been shoved down my throat.

When you've accomplished a certain amount in your career, you're not so focused on your ambitions.

Serious is when they tell you, 'You've got cancer.' Cancer is serious, but then the rest of it is not.

Suddenly you've worked yourself up to the top of the pecking order and you say to yourself, okay, this is going to be fun.

It's a phenomenon that I see with young actors - a lot of American speaking parts going to British actors.

When you're making pictures out of heartfelt passion, it hurts when someone calls them a calculated business move.

Wherever arms flow, violence follows. Bullets replace ballots as the solution to political disputes.

I've just kind of been used to carrying movies. I look back and I'm just used to being in every single scene in a lot of pictures.

I don't ever do those kind of epic, huge, green-screen movies.

My father did 90-plus films. He was Spartacus!

My marriage and my families come certainly before my career.

Most of the stories I read are about my Hollywood pedigree.

I love kids, and I love having had this second chance to have a family.

Liberace was a lovely guy.

Learning patience was not an easy lesson.

I guess there are some women who like older men, but it's a smaller group.

To me, Bermuda is a real family spot.

I don't smile a lot in my pictures. I'm always so ... grim.

I try not to dwell too much on a bad marriage.

I've been dying to do a Marvel picture for so long.

Chemotherapy takes its toll; the more you keep doing it, you lose your energy, and it gets more difficult to swallow.

I'm an optimistic guy.

There are not a lot of sons or daughters of actors who have made it. Hollywood is awash with failures.

Actors, I have to say, most of the time, they elevate things; they don't screw things up most of the time.

Money never sleeps, pal

'Wall Street' was a very important movie for me in terms of my career. I won an Oscar, and then the film 'Fatal Attraction' came right after it.

I come from a tough stock.

The arts are a celebration of life.

I think the quality of television, given the amount of time you have, how short you have, is proportionally so much better than most movies.

I don't know about Brad Pitt leaving that beautiful woman to go hold orphans for Angelina. I mean how long is that going to last?

I've taken blame about being a bad father - if being a bad father is working your butt off trying to create a career at one time.

I don't look good in tights. I know that.

I'm a risk-taker. Most of my career has not been a joyful experience, but it has been challenging. I like the dangers.

My mother is Bermudan, so I had a lot of memories when I was a kid, used to go down to Bermuda a lot.

I went into rehab to save my marriage, but I wound up saving myself.

If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Like my father, like most actors, I was a pretty ambitious guy.

Cancer didn't bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet.

The thing with cancer is that you want to get it as early as you can.

Basketball is great; no one in Europe seems to believe just how close the spectators can sit to the players.

I have some idea of the pressure of finding your own identity with a famous father.

I don't think tongue cancer is the best cancer for an actor.

I've always worked hard and played hard, and I'm sure I'll be cleaning up my act in the future.

Cigar smoking by it's very nature is much more reflective than interactive.

Lunch? You gotta be kidding. Lunch is for wimps.

I have nothing against her, and in fact I'm very fond of my first wife. But we should have ended that marriage eight or 10 years earlier.

I have hardly ever worked with the same director twice. But when you have worked with a director before, you understand his behavior.

We must unite to make nuclear weapons a horror of the past.

Our economy is increasingly dependent on the success and integrity of the financial markets.

Kids know. They know everything. I would err on the side of pretty much sharing everything.

I've always been somebody who, when I started a picture, never knew what the next picture would be.

I'm impressed with the people from Chicago. Hollywood is hype, New York is talk, Chicago is work.

Never knew how poor I was until I started making money.

I thought I could never be the actor Dad was, so I avoided it for a while.

Liberace was one of the biggest stars in America. He was a kind of a phenomenon.

The one thing that men and women have in common - they both like the company of men.

The people who work in Wall Street still look up to Gordon Gekko. He's sort of a guru.

I never really look at my movies.

The quality of health care in Canada is excellent.

Celebrity gets you access to world leaders.

For an actor, it's great fun to play one of these hungry white sharks. Audiences love to hate them.

I enjoy provocative things that are questionable.

I was there the night John Lennon was shot, three blocks away. It left a lasting impression on me.

Control is what gives you privacy.

My mother and father met at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was a senior and she was a junior, and their marriage didn't last very long.

It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

I am a Jew. Those are four words of pride. My Jewishness is as deep as my genes.

Someone reminded me I once said, 'Greed is good.' Now it seems it's legal.

Actresses have more fear of being disliked. I, on the other hand, revel in it.

I've always tried to kind of stretch my wings as an actor and do things that are different.

I fell asleep to the sounds of the end of the world.

I met Michael Milken for the first time with Oliver Stone at the Drexel Burnham offices in Los Angeles.

I don't wish ill will on anybody.

Everything's so repressive now - it's the No generation. You can't do anything, you can't eat anything, you have to abstain.