Paul Newman > Quotes

“I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”
― Paul Newman

“A man with no enemies is a man with no character.”
― Paul Newman

“You only grow when you are alone.”
― Paul Newman

“We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”
― Paul Newman

“I don't like to discuss my marriage, but I will tell you something which may sound corny but which happens to be true. I have steak at home. Why should I go out for hamburger?”
― Paul Newman

“Those with a moral deficit put on a good show, and sleep like a baby.”
― Paul Newman

“The problem with getting older is you still remember how things used to be.”
― Paul Newman

“On adultery: "Why fool around with hamburger when you have steak at home?”
― Paul Newman

“I never ask my wife about my flaws. Instead I try to get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humor. You don't want any woman to look under the carpet, guys, because there's lots of flaws underneath. Joanne believes my character in a film we did together, 'Mr. and Mrs. Bridge' comes closest to who I really am. I personally don't think there's one character who comes close . . . but I learned a long time ago not to disagree on things that I don't have a solid opinion about.”
― Paul Newman

“It's like chasing a beautiful woman for 80 years. Finally, she relents and you say, 'I'm terribly sorry. I'm tired.' [After winning his first Oscar after so many losses]”
― Paul Newman

“There are two Newman's laws. The first one is "It is useless to put on your brakes when you're upside down." The second is "Just when things look darkest, they go black.”
― Paul Newman

“The embarrassing thing is that my salad dressing is out-grossing my films.”
― Paul Newman

“It's been a privilege to be here.”
― Paul Newman, Paul Newman: A Life

“When you see the right thing to do, you'd better do it.”
― Paul Newman

“I picture my epitaph: 'Here lies Paul Newman, who died a failure because his eyes turned brown.”
― Paul Newman

“It's always darkest before it turns absolutely pitch black.”
― Paul Newman

“On considering adultery - Why go out for hamburger when I can have steak at home?”
― Paul Newman

“There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”
― Paul Newman

“It's all been a bad joke that just ran out of control. I got into food for fun but the business got a mind of its own. Now - my good Lord - look where it has gotten me. My products are on supermarket shelves, in cinemas, in the theater. And they say show business is odd.”
― Paul Newman

“Acting is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding some of your own experience.”
― Paul Newman

“I like racing but food and pictures are more thrilling. I can't give them up. In racing you can be certain, to the last thousandth of a second, that someone is the best, but with a film or a recipe, there is no way of knowing how all the ingredients will work out in the end. The best can turn out to be awful and the worst can be fantastic. Cooking is like performing and performing like cooking.”
― Paul Newman

“Of course I know Julie Andrews. She's the last of the really great broads.”
― Paul Newman

“when u have no enemies ,you are characterless.”
― Paul Newman

“To that extent that you can sustain and maintain that childlike part of your personality is probably the best part of acting.

Quoted in "Paul Newman's Road To Glory", interview with Paul Fischer, Film Monthly (2002-07-01)”
― Paul Newman

“Honey, Don't go shooting all the dogs 'cause one of them's got fleas”
― Paul Newman

“Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.”
― Paul Newman The Color of Money

“You can get straight As in marketing and still flunk ordinary life. —NEWMAN TO LEE IACOCCA AFTER IACOCCA’S PINTO CAUGHT FIRE”
― Paul Newman, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple

“But in the course of churning out new products, we came perilously close to putting ourselves out of business because we hadn’t taken into account a new phenomenon in the food business, a diabolical supermarket invention—slotting. If ever there was a dirty word in the food business, slotting is it. Competition for shelf space had always been intense, and products were selected at the whim of the supermarket buyer. Some traditional emoluments were involved in getting a new product on the shelf, like giving one free bottle for every ten purchased or offering an introductory promotion—we would lower the price and pass the savings on to the consumer, who instead of buying one”
― Paul Newman, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple