Quotes

I'm much more proud of being a father than being an actor.

You can't undo the past . . . but you can certainly not repeat it.

I'm staggered by the question of what it's like to be a multimillionaire. I always have to remind myself that I am.

[3/10/05 interview in "People" magazine, on how he stays in shape] Mostly weight resistance training, almost an hour of cardio at least three times a week. I have a gym in my house in Los Angeles and a gym trailer that I can take on the road with me when I'm on location. At my house there's a very long steep driveway. I do wind sprints that kick my 50-year-old ass. It's part of my job. I have come to associate working out as work. Whenever I don't have to do it for films, I kind of slack off.

I am a sensitive guy. People think they know the real me, but they don't. And then they write things that make me sound like such a jerk.

I hate working out. I work out for films solely. I associate working out with films. As soon as they stop, I stop working out.

Fifty is the new 40. I always thought my best work would come in the years 40 to 60, if I was fortunate enough to hang around--and it is hard to stick around.

Who I am as a father is far more important to me than the public perception.

I am baffled to understand why the things that I saw happening in Iraq, really good things happening in Iraq, are not being reported on.

[on Hudson Hawk (1991)] I always thought it was a little ahead of its time, a little too hip for the room.

I think the rules are going to have to change for me to ever run for public office. My checkered past will always keep me out of politics. If I ever did run I would run on the platform that I did all these bad things, but I no longer do them, and during the four years of being president or whatever office it might be, I would be good and serve my country. I want to serve my country.

I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion, I want them to stop pissing on my money and your money, the tax dollars that we give 50% of, or 40% of, every year, and I want them to be fiscally responsible, and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I'll say I'm a Republican. But other than that, I want the government to take care of people who need help, like the kids in foster care, the half-million kids who are in orphanages right now--they call them foster homes, but they're orphanages. I want them to take care of the elderly and give them free medicine, give them whatever they need. There's tons, billions and billions of dollars that are just being wasted. Okay? I hate government. I'm apolitical. Write that down: I'm not a Republican.

[February 2006] Look at what happened to James Frey in the last two weeks. That's a great book and so is the follow-up book. And just because his publisher chose to say that these were memoirs, it took it out of being a work of fiction, a great work of fiction and very well-written to this guy having to go be sucker-punched on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) by one of the most powerful women in television just to grind her own ax about it. Hey Oprah, you had President [Bill Clinton] on your show and if this prick didn't lie about a couple of things I'm going to set myself on fire right now. James Frey is a writer, okay? He can write whatever he wants. It's fiction, and it's just hard, it's just shameful how he was treated in some of these things. It's just shameful and it's just not fair and not right . . .

I'm not an action hero anymore, and I think it would be inappropriate for me to compare anything that happens in Hollywood and the entertainment industry to the tragic loss of life on September 11th.

I spoke to the Colombians. It's fine. I get passionate sometimes. I said Colombia because it was the first country to come to mind. The drug problem has as much to do with what's going on in this country. If there wasn't a demand, there wouldn't be a supply.

I think what the United States, and everyone who cares about protecting the freedoms that the largest part of the free world now has, should do whatever it takes to end terrorism in the world and not just in the Middle East. I'm talking also about going to Colombia and doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade. It's killing this country. It's killing all the countries that coke goes into. I believe that somebody's making money on it in the United States. If they weren't making money on it, they would have stopped it. They could stop it in one day. It's just a plant that they grow, and these guys are growing it like it's corn or tobacco or any other thing. By the time it gets here, it becomes a billion-dollar industry. And I think that's a form of terrorism as well.

The Iraqi people want to live in a world where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed. I mean, doesn't everybody want that?

I have zero interest in performing in films to try to convey any kind of message. My job is to be entertaining. There's a very different point of view about messages in films in Europe than there is in the States. Audiences rebel because they feel that they are being preached to.

[on his planned film about the Iraq war] The movie is about these guys who do what they are asked for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom.

I thought about signing up but my friends told me I was too old. I called the White House, called President [George Bush] and asked what I could do. So I got involved with the national foster care program.

If you take guns away from legal gun owners then the only people who would have guns would be the bad guys. Even a pacifist would get violent if someone were trying to kill him or her. You would fight for your life, whatever your beliefs. You'd use a rock or tear one of these chairs out of the floor . . . Hey, maybe I've been watching too many Bruce Willis movies!

I'm always being accused of being a Hollywood Republican, but I'm not! I have just as many Democratic ideas as Republican ones. If they could build three fewer bombs every month and give the money to foster care, that would be great.

The idea of serving my country remained in my mind. Over the past few years from varying sources--"Time" magazine, books and television-- information began coming to my attention on foster care; its history and the current crisis of an antiquated system overburdened with 580,000 children who have no voice. Children need to be protected by interstate technology systems that can track placements, education, medical records and protect these children from predators traveling from state to state. I saw foster care as a way for me to serve my country in a system by which shining a little bit of light could benefit a great deal by helping kids who were literally wards of the government.

Hair loss is God's way of telling me I'm human.

[1998] Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn't know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally! I choose not to believe that's the way. And that's what makes America cool, you know?

I don't think my opinion means jack shit, because I'm an actor. Why do actors think their opinions mean more because you act? You just caught a break as an actor. There are hundreds--thousands--of actors who are just as good as I am, and probably better. Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor's mouth lately? Although I liked George Clooney's documentary on Darfur.

They still haven't caught the guy that killed [John F. Kennedy]. I'll get killed for saying this, but I'm pretty sure those guys are still in power, in some form. The entire government of the United States was co-opted.

I happen to live in Los Angeles and it is probably one of the most toxic environments on earth. People live here and they know that the air is poisonous. They know that children are affected by the air in Los Angeles. They say that growing up in Los Angeles is the equivalent of smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes throughout your entire childhood. It's horrific when you can actually look at the air and see it.

No, I am not in favor of the war in Iraq, so let me stop you right there. I am not pro-war but what I am is that, I like to support the young men and women who are over there participating in the war.

[on Twitter] I just can't live with myself if I started twittering. I just think: "That way lies madness".

[on The Expendables (2010) sequel] I talked to Sly [Sylvester Stallone] and he's going for all the marbles this time, and he's going to get everybody in this time. Even Stone Cold Steve Austin, who took two bullets in the last film, is coming back. Hopefully, they'll start shooting it while we're young enough to survive!

[on the possibility of Michael Bay directing a a Die Hard film, specifically Live Free or Die Hard (2007)] Would have ruined DH4. Few people will work with him now, and I know I will never work with him again.

[on whether an R-rated "Die Hard" could be done without producer Joel Silver] Fuck Joel Silver. That is because you do not understand my relationship with Joel S. We are cordial now when we bump into each other, but we have not worked together since The Last Boy Scout (1991).

I'm really pleased to continue to be asked back to do other versions and other incarnations of Die Hard (1988). The first one really is . . . that's all there is. Everything else is just trying to be as good as that film.

[on A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)] It's a difficult title. "A Good Day to Die Har"d? It's like, have a sandwich and let's go shopping--then die hard.

I want to do A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), then one final "Die Hard" movie--"Die Hard 6"--before finally hanging that white vest up for good. At the moment, I can run and I can fight on screen. But there will come a time when I no longer want to do that. That's when I'll step away from the "Die Hard" films.

[on missing a role in Full Metal Jacket (1987)] I got the call two days before we were to start the first Moonlighting (1985). I was crushed! I'd always been a student of the Vietnam war. As it turned out, it took them two years to complete the film and get it out. So, everything happens for a reason.

I don't cheat, lie or go out of my way to mess people over, but I'm still amazed at the venal garbage that goes on in this town. People lie about you. People want to see you fail. It's so competitive here, you can see how much people want you to fail.

[on Kim Basinger] What sets her apart from other actresses is that she does a lot of things well. Kim is a throwback to '40s actresses. She's not afraid to act like a geek.

[on his NYC bartending days at Cafe Central, during which time he acquired the nickname "Bruno"] The bar was always six-deep. It was where a lot of celebs and movie-star types and wannabes hung out. If you're serving them drinks and you're drinking with them, it's a very fraternal feeling. They're not way up on a pedestal. It's four in the morning and they're probably half in the bag. So I didn't have to deal with that mystique.

For a long time, I don't know if there was a lot of controversy surrounding me, but it was certainly more interesting to throw rocks and dump trash on me than it was to say nice things about me. That kind of controversy sells more. And has since become, in the last ten years since they started writing about me, the norm.

Look, this is my face. If it's a curse, it's a curse. And I never said, "Hey, I'm smirking, America! Look at me! Love me!" It's a little hook that they caught on and they've found a way to turn it against me and make it some negative thing, but that's how I smile. Nothin' I can do about it.