Kirk Douglas > Quotes

“In order to achieve anything,you must be brave enough to fail.”
― Kirk Douglas

“The biggest spur to my interest in art came when I played van Gogh in the biographical film Lust For Life. The role affected me deeply. I was haunted by this talented genius who took his own life, thinking he was a failure. How terrible to paint pictures and feel that no one wants them. How awful it would be to write music that no one wants to hear. Books that no one wants to read. And how would you like to be an actor with no part to play, and no audience to watch you. Poor Vincent—he wrestled with his soul in the wheat field of Auvers-sur-Oise, stacks of his unsold paintings collecting dust in his brother's house. It was all too much for him, and he pulled the trigger and ended it all. My heart ached for van Gogh the afternoon that I played that scene. As I write this, I look up at a poster of his "Irises"—a poster from the Getty Museum. It's a beautiful piece of art with one white iris sticking up among a field of blue ones. They paid a fortune for it, reportedly $53 million. And poor Vincent, in his lifetime, sold only one painting for 400 francs or $80 dollars today. This is what stimulated my interest in buying works of art from living artists. I want them to know while they are alive that I enjoy their paintings hanging on my walls, or their sculptures decorating my garden”
― Kirk Douglas, Climbing The Mountain: My Search For Meaning

“Life is like a B-picture script.”
― Kirk Douglas

“So they became superpatriots. And to prove themselves right-minded, they were more than willing to sacrifice the lives of others, even their fellow Jews. They were like the Vichy government in France, collaborators who held on to their influence and position at the expense of their fellow countrymen.”
― Kirk Douglas, I Am Spartacus!: Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist

“The biggest lie is the lie we tell ourselves in the distorted visions we have of ourselves, blocking out some sections, enhancing others. What remains are not the cold facts of life, but how we perceive them. That's really who we are.”
― Kirk Douglas, The Ragman's Son

“I believe much of the divisiveness in the world has been caused by religion, even in the time of Spartacus when they worshipped many gods. What is the purpose of religion? After ninety-five years on this planet, I have come to the conclusion that religion should be based on only one thing: helping your fellow man. If everybody followed that religion—helping his fellow man—armies would vanish overnight.”
― Kirk Douglas, I Am Spartacus!: Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist

“The definition of an actor - someone who loves rejection.”
― Kirk Douglas, The Ragman's Son

“We both fell in love -- with me.”
― Kirk Douglas, The Ragman's Son

“The eye of the movie camera is an evil eye. When you act in front of it, that cyclops keeps taking from you, until you feel empty. On the stage, you give something to the audience, more comes back. When the curtain comes down in a theater, you have a feeling of exhilaration - something's been completed, fulfilled. It's so different from an exhausting day of shooting at the studio. You come home tired, drained. Making a =movie is like making a mosaic - laboriously putting little pieces together, jumping from one part of the picture to another, never seeing the whole, whereas in a ply, the momentum of the continuity works with you, takes you along. Doing a play is like dancing to music. Making a movie is like dancing in wet cement.”
― Kirk Douglas, The Ragman's Son

“Anne and I met him at the beach in the south of France. Anne asked him to autograph a Chagall book that had one of his paintings in the middle of a page. He took the book home and brought it back the next morning. He had extended the copy of the painting to fill the entire page and signed it to me. It hangs on my wall near the bookshelf.”
― Kirk Douglas, Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning

“All this only proves that you don't have to be a nice person to be extremely talented. You can be a shit and be talented and, conversely, you can be the nicest guy in the world and not have any talent. Stanley Kubrick is a talented shit.”
― Kirk Douglas, The Ragman's Son

“Remembrance of my mother’s love changes my veil to gossamer threads. An anti-Semitic slur causes the veil to press against me. Sometimes a happy thought can make me jump for joy, but I must be careful; if I jump too high, I’ll bump into the veil. It doesn’t hurt, but it always tinges my joy with sadness.”
― Kirk Douglas, Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning