"I'm notorious for giving a bad interview. I'm an actor and I can't help but feel I'm boring when I'm on as myself." "Why don't you put that in the headline: 'He Only Did Three With Doris!' Set a lot of people straight." “Love? It’s over exaggerated. There are many forms of love, of course, like love for a child or a parent, love for dogs or plants or fried chicken. I love loving, but being in love with someone has been too romanticized. People have come to expect much more of it than there really is.” “I have no philosophy about acting or anything else. You just do it. And I mean that. You just do it. However, I can say that with ease after thirty-five years. You go to a newcomer and say “just do it,” and it doesn’t mean dits, does it? You’ve got to do the big circle to come back and be able to say “You just do it.” “Someone asked me once what my philosophy of life was, and I said some crazy thing. I should have said, how the hell do I know?” "As you get older, you learn to keep your mouth shut more, because you never know how badly you’re going to embarrass yourself later." "John Wayne was then the Hollywood legend, and I was on screen with him. The guy is an angel. He saved my life back then when no other film maker wanted to know me." - On The Undefeated (1969) "I did a movie with Duke Wayne and was very surprised to find out he had small feet, wore lifts, and a corset. Hollywood is seldom what it seems." "I also remember meeting Gary Cooper at a party. I was so impressed that I blurted out that all the stars I had met before had been terrific people. Cooper thought about it for a minute, then said, 'Yes, I suppose we are, the ones who are on top. But watch out for the ones who haven't quite made it, or are past it.' It was valuable advice." "Nobody is discovered. Ever. Publicity departments loved to say that Lana Turner was discovered sitting at a soda fountain counter, drinking a chocolate soda ... It isn't true. I mean, there are too many interesting-looking people on Earth for that to ever happen." "It was the biggest mistake of my career." - On A Farewell to Arms (1957) "Television is the monster of all time that eats everything and everybody. When they wanted McMillan & Wife (1971) to go to two hours I said, 'Why? The thing doesn't even hold up for ninety minutes!'." "If you're cast in crap like Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), it doesn't matter if you experiment with a scene and it goes wrong. Who's gonna notice? But if it works, you can use it in a better film. Like Giant (1956), perhaps." "Do you want to know the secret of my second youth? Well, it must have something to do with my being surrounded by men. Women put too much of a strain on the heart!" (1984) |
"I had to overcome the name Rock. If I'd been as hip then as I am now, I would have never consented to be named Rock." “The most dangerous thing for an actor is to refuse to listen to anyone else, to feel you know more than anybody.” “Fright is one of the worst things in the world. I’ve been plenty frightened at times, like when I was in an automobile accident, a head-on collision. I remember I was so frightened my hands wouldn’t work. A terrible feeling, like a disease you can’t control. I don’t like things I can’t control.” "I like to work with new actors; it’s sort of a little game I have with myself. I love to watch them, to see what they do, what they come up with, if they’re inventive. Their ideas may not work all the time, but it’s important that they have something more than an ability to memorize lines." "I am not happy that I am sick. I am not happy that I have AIDS. But if that is helping others, I can at least know my own misfortune has had some positive worth." When meeting John F. Kennedy, the American president remarked: "They say all Fitzgeralds are related." to which Hudson replied, "I guess that makes Ella happy." " I always consider my job just as someone working in an office. Past 5 P.M., I lead my very own existence far from the cameras. It's essential for an actor to clearly separate private life from work... essential for me, anyway." I can't play a loser - I don't look like one. "I love to smoke. I keep hoping someone will discover it's a healthy habit because the smoke kills all the germs in your system. I love to drink, and I hate exercise. I don't mind going out on the side of a hill and chopping down a tree, but I hate organized exercise. I built a gym in my house but I never use it. I don't even like to walk through it." "I welcome my birthdays. Relish them, as a matter of fact. I have confidence now and can look forward to trying new things. I don't think fifty was a crucial age. Forty was, and thirty-nine because I was facing forty. But lately everything has fallen into place." (1983) "It was better than I thought. Why didn't I put more into it?" - On McMillan & Wife (1971) "Right from the start, I hated the script. I just didn't believe in that man for one minute. Making fun of death is difficult and dangerous. That scene where I went out and bought a plot for myself in the cemetery - to me it was completely distasteful." - On Send Me No Flowers (1964) "He was like ol' Dad to me, and I was like a son to him, I think. When you're scared and new and you're trying to figure out this thing, and suddenly an older man will reach out and say, 'There, there, it's okay,' that was Douglas Sirk." [After walking out of Los Angeles premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)] "Will someone tell me what the hell this is about?" |