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According to Clark... About his films and co-stars About his wives  General Quotes ""I think the only religion is a good man in love with a good woman." "I've got a stubborn Dutch streak. It's been the cause of most of my mistakes." "I'm acting strictly for the money. I don't want to be very rich but I don't want to give up what I've got." "I know my limitations and I really am at my best in an open shirt, blue jeans and boots." "They see me as an ordinary guy, like a construction worker or the guy who delivers your piano..." "That's what's so strange about life. The brave ones don't make it." "To tell you the truth, women scare me." "I've given no thought to whether I make friends fast or slowly. I don't have a lot of friends; I do have a lot of acquaintances. Friends are something else." "I've spent a lot of time learning to be an actor. I'm still learning. I don't know how you go about learning to be a personality but I do know how you learn to go about being an actor and I work at it. It's a profession I'm proud of. It's my job, not that I'm the best, but I try." "I've never understood why men want sons. If I ever had a child then maybe I could be convinced." "I'm not a rich guy by any means, but I'm comfortable. That's all I ask of life--to be warm, well-fed and comfortable." "I've never worked hard at being a myth." "Love is something that stays with a person all through his life. A man just gets rid of it periodically. To live is to love. Life without loving people is pretty worthless." "Looks and age don't cut any ice with me. They're not important. I've always leaned towards the medium in height and size. However, if the right girl happens to be short and round or tall and thin, I suppose I'll think she's perfect." "I never believed in that bunk about a man's ideal girl. I've probably had a dozen ideals in my life, each one being the person I happened to be in love with at the time." "I certainly don't like ultra-spectacular women, the ones who go in for startling make-up and clothes. I like the girls who look conservatively smart with a smooth finish. No straggling hair or run-over heels or missing buttons." "I like the sophisticated type. The sophisticated woman is more interesting. She has more to offer. She has had experience with life and men. She has seen more, heard more and is consequently more amusing. As far as I’m concerned, the demure little girl is a very dull proposition. Give me the older woman who knows what it’s all about.” "Every time they say 'Cut!' and it's the last take of a movie, I feel I'll never be hired for another one...All actors feel they're not entitled to happiness and all that money, that some evil god will take it away from us when we get it.""It's a chain of accidents. When you step into Hollywood, you wind yourself into thousands of chains of accidents. If all of the thousands happen to come out exactly right--and the chance of that figures out to be one in eight million--then you'll be a star." "This 'King' stuff is pure bullshit. I eat and sleep and go to the bathroom just like everyone else. There's no special light that shines inside me and makes me a star. I'm just a lucky slob from Ohio." "I'm still going to wear the same size hat." (after winning an Oscar) “We are all about the same in the beginning. We have about the same amount of instincts, desires, and capabilities. It is up to us whether we keep them alive or not. I don’t believe anybody was ever born mean or pessimistic or under-privileged. We all have the seed of greatness within us. I know I’m no better than anybody else. I’ve had pretty good luck and good health and I’ve learned to keep plugging away." "I don't want to sell war bonds, I don't want to make speeches and I don't want to entertain. I just want to be sent where the going is rough." (after enlisting in the Army) "I'm going to enlist in the Air Corps but not until I get my head together and sort things out. I don't expect to come back and I don't want to come back." "If I ever fall into Hitler's hands, the son of a bitch will put me in a cage like a big gorilla. He'd exhibit me all over Germany!" "Well, we've won the war and there's peace now everywhere. Everywhere except here in Hollywood, where the fighting for good scripts, good billing and good dressing rooms never ends!" "Definitely there was no future for me in Hollywood. I was no Valentino or Gilbert. I was somewhat of a roughneck." "My days of playing the dashing young lover are over. I'm no longer believable in those parts. There has been considerate talk about older guys wooing and winning leading ladies half their age. I don't think the public likes it, and I don't care for it myself. It's not realistic. The actresses I started out with have long since quit playing glamour girls and sweet young things. Now it's time I acted my age. " (in 1959) "The only reason the fans come to see me if that I know life is great and they know I know it." "On my tombstone they should write, 'He was lucky and he knew it.'" |
