Fate pulls you in different directions.
When I'm a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It's somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.
You hear about actors being late and all that sort of stuff, but you never find that with an actor who's directed, because an actor who's directed understands all the problems your production is going through.
In my career as a director, there's always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: 'What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?' At that time you have to say: 'OK, forget that and just go ahead.'
I think 'Dirty Harry' was probably sensitive toward the victims of violent crime.
Liberals are not always so liberal with people who disapprove - disapprove of their point of view.
I was drafted during the Korean War.
Drama usually has some sort of intense conflict.
I like a drama.
'Unforgiven' is probably an example of a script that I liked right away but thought, 'This is great, but I'd like to do this when I'm older.' So I stuck it in the drawer for ten years and then took it out.
I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.
Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That's the only way you can get elected.
In 'Gran Torino,' I play a guy who's racially offensive. But he learned. It shows that you're never too old to learn and embrace people that you don't understand to begin with. It seems like nobody else got that message, I guess.
Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you're changing, emotionally as well as physically?
I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we - we own this country. We - we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.
I'm not a chick-flick enthusiast.
Other than obvious errors like forgetting a line, often I can't see any difference between take one and take 20.
I mean, I've always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else's hair.
I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who's not doing a good job. But I didn't make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.
Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.
