Burt Reynolds Quotes

The best way not to fail again is to be absolutely positive that when you do it this time, you're going to do it right.

My movies were the kind they show in prisons and airplanes, because nobody can leave.

Women are my drugs and alcohol. When I'm involved with one woman, I'm involved with one woman. Period. But between romances, I am carnivorous.

There are three stages of an actor's career. Young, old, and "You look good".

The audience will always forgive you for being wrong and exciting, but never for being right and dull.

I'm paying the third highest alimony and child support in the world.

And the only two ahead of me are sheiks.

I've always gotten along well with Texans. You've got to.

The most important thing to remember is: to protect your quarterback - ME!

Sometimes you have to lose yourself 'fore you can find anything.

I regret that I do not have the dignity of Ricardo Montalban, the class of Dean Martin, or the humor of Bill Cosby. I do have the heart of a lion.

Gator [ McKlusky from White Lightning] was a criminal and a felon, but he had a good heart - he's probably a cousin to Bo. Bo was not a felon and definitely never wanted to hurt anybody - the final scene confirms that. He confesses to Buford T. Justice that he is right behind him. Gator McKlusky would not have done that.

Florida is a very healing place.

I love Stroker Ace. I love the whole team. Jim Nabors really stole the show, and Ned Beatty, well I've made more of my movies with Ned Beatty than anybody else.

Having done 300 television shows and almost 60 movies, I'm tired of having guys who are younger than some sandwiches I've had, telling me to turn left at the couch. There's no appreciation of actors and no sense of history.

It was a bit of a lark when I agreed to do [Smokey and the Bandit], and I knew we'd have fun if we could get Jackie Gleason.

I had an Indian Scout motorcycle during high school, but I never could take it to school. My dad would sneak out at night and pull the spark-plug wires.

I can sing as well as Fred Astaire can act.

My acting is a bit like basketball. Most females in my films come off very well. I give great assist. And if I'm lucky, I even score.

All you really have in the end are your stories.

I had known Hal [Needham] for a while by the time he moved in, so I was sure we'd get along well, and we did. He'd go off and do his gigs and I would do mine, and when we were lucky we got to work on the same ones.

Goldie [Hawn] is one of the sharpest ladies I've ever worked with.

She doesn't miss a thing. She's my greatest audience. She laughs at all my stories and in the right places, too.

You get to a certain age, where you know you can't go over the wall, but I'll never get to the age where I can't go through it.

You're not a man until your father says you're a man.

Jay Leno is wonderful and a good friend, but it will always be the Carson show to a lot of people.

Money doesn't buy happiness. It buys great hookers - but not happiness.

A fan is a fan is a friend no matter what current he/she/it operates on, AC or DC. Thanks for being one of mine.

If you hang onto something long enough, it will come back in style.. Like ME.

If I want to be up for an Academy Award, I'm either going to have to play a tour de force of some kind or have a tracheotomy just before the nominations.

Our family really didn't have a car; we had my dad's police cruiser. Later he got a Buick, and that's what I was driving when I had a wreck. I'm lucky it was as big and strong as it was, because that Buick is what saved my life.

When an actor marries an actress they both fight for the mirror.

Smokey and the Bandit was the first picture [Hal Needham ] directed, and I knew he could handle it. I had just directed Gator, and he saw my style and used that as a pattern.

You can only hold your stomach in for so many years.

If you hold on to things long enough, they get back into style. Like me.

In football you can make it if you've got the 'I'm-going-to-get-up-off-the-ground-and-kick-your-ass' attitude.

I can tell a young person where the mines are, but he's probably going to step on them anyway.

We got Sally Field onboard [in Smokey and the Bandit] and it changed the entire dynamic. About a third of the way into filming, I was in the car with Sally and there was this little moment where we kind of looked at each other, and then we both turned and looked over at Hal [Needham]. He gave us a thumbs up and said, "Yeah!" And we kind of knew there was some magic going on.

All of the younger actors keep coming up to me and asking me where all of the land mines are because they know I've stepped on them all.

But then when I'm in a halfway successful movie, it irritates the hell out of the critics in New York, because they'd like to kill my pictures if they could. So maybe I'm pretty good in the movie. Then they use all these words like I'm 'surprisingly' good, or 'shockingly enough,' I'm good. It's like I crawled out from under a magazine and they're surprised I can act.

I'm terrified of marriage. I'm terrified of not doing something so important and at the same time I think you shouldn't rush into these things.

Friends come in herds and they leave in herds. Hollywood loves an adventure, but you have to hit bottom. Then they love to save you and be a part of it. Or think they're a part of it.

The more the art dominated my life and my house, the more the house became a home.

Trans Am sales went up 70 percent after Smokey and the Bandit, and I was promised a free car every year for life by the Pontiac president.

I'm really much more like Phil Potter from [the 1979 film] Starting Over. People do think I'm the Bandit [from Smokey and the Bandit ], and I'm a lot more serious than that.

There are no awards in Hollywood for being an idiot.

The moment you grab someone by the lapels, you're lost.