Michael Douglas Quotes

Human Rights for everyone is the necessary foundation upon which all of us may build a world where everybody may live in peace and serenity and plenty.

If we confront anti-Semitism ... if we combat it individually and as a society, and use whatever platform we have to denounce it, we can stop the spread of this madness.

Being single is pretty good. It's a nice sense of irresponsibility.

Actresses have more fear of being disliked. I, on the other hand, revel in it.

I'm impressed with the people from Chicago. Hollywood is hype, New York is talk, Chicago is work.

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

Sometimes we spend more efforts with people that are strangers in terms of making an impression than the person that's closest to us. And you just got to remember not to take for granted that person that's closest to you.

Wherever arms flow, violence follows. Bullets replace ballots as the solution to political disputes.

Cancer did not bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet.

I dont know about Brad Pitt leaving that beautiful woman to go hold orphans for Angelina. I mean how long is that going to last?

A lot of actors get concerned about their own image, even going so far as to rewrite a movie to best serve that image. All I want to do is be in good movies.

There was a lot of tabloid journalism about my supposed sex addiction.

Bullshit. It's all bullshit. I mean, come on, I never pretended to be a saint. But give me a break.

When you're making pictures out of heartfelt passion, it hurts when someone calls them a calculated business move.

You have to make entertaining movies.

But like a good meal, it's nice to have a little food for thought after you walk out of the theater rather than just wiling away a couple of hours.

Cigar smoking by it's very nature is much more reflective than interactive.

It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

With little knowledge of what it meant to be a Jew, I found myself passionately defending the Jewish people. Now, half a century later, I have to defend my son. Anti-Semitism, I've seen, is like a disease that goes dormant, flaring up with the next political trigger.

There's nothing like a family crisis, especially a divorce, to force a person to re-evaluate his life.

Relationships are like bubbles – they’re fragile.

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies and cuts through to the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Someone reminded me I once said, 'Greed is good.' Now it seems it's legal.

Greed is good! Greed is right! Greed works! Greed will save the U.S.A.!

A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.

Suddenly you've worked yourself up to the top of the pecking order and you say to yourself, okay, this is going to be fun.

That's why I'm such a big sports fan, with sports you can never guess what's gonna happen. Most movies you get halfway through and you can kind of guess the ending.

It's a phenomenon that I see with young actors - a lot of American speaking parts going to British actors.

Everybody knows about Las Vegas. It's a state of mind. Some people want to come with their kids and have a great weekend. Some people want to shop. Some people want to find hookers. Some people want to eat. Some people just want to gamble. It's a potpourri of decadence.

I thought I could never be the actor Dad was, so I avoided it for a while.

Chemotherapy takes its toll; the more you keep doing it, you lose your energy, and it gets more difficult to swallow.

Since Catherine [Zeta-Jones] and I got together, I've cut back dramatically.

My priorities changed, and I still love acting and all that, but not as much as I love watching my two kids grow up.

What's worth doing is worth doing for money.

I've always tried to kind of stretch my wings as an actor and do things that are different.

Everything's so repressive now - it's the No generation.

You can't do anything, you can't eat anything, you have to abstain.

I am a Jew. Those are four words of pride. My Jewishness is as deep as my genes.

It's important to save your money. We need it for the long haul but too many Americans don't save and don't invest. It used to be that people would be proud of the fact that they were middle class. You'd have your church and buy a house and you had a car and everything else. Now, it's really, really tough. Everybody has financial issues except for the one percent.

I never thought about the gayness. Liberace just looked like he was having so much fun. And that whole idea of talking directly to the audience, you just went along with him. He made you happy. And he's finally getting acknowledged for all the Elton John, Lady Gaga, Madonna theatrics now that people are looking at his old costumes.

I don't even know why, but my entire career is contemporary films.

Entire career! There's no period movies - there's one - but there's no period movies, no special effects movies. I just do character studies and so, some of them are gonna bump into each other, but I love the challenge, with a good script. I love the challenge of playing not a very pleasant or attractive character that seduces an audience or wins an audience over by the end.

Every empire eventually falls.

Even when you're acting with a producing hat, when you're in every scene, you're really conscious of trying to make everybody as good as they are, because ultimately you're trying to make the best movie possible.

Money itself isn’t lost or made. It’s simply transferred from one perception to another.

We must unite to make nuclear weapons a horror of the past.

My entire career is contemporary based, not by choice, but just by character.

So, all the movies I've done, except for one in 40 years, are contemporary. But I never did an effects movie. So, I'm also a producer and I was really curious about how this whole thing went together.

I'm not a big filmophile. I don't watch movies a lot for a hobby. I spend all my time watching sporting events. Because, opposed to movies, you can never tell how they're going to end.

One of the things that I find most incredible about dad is the third act of his life.After all he accomplished in his professional career and what he's given for his country, at the point in his life where he's faced adversity, losing a son, having a helicopter crash, having a stroke, and what he's accomplished in this third act in his life, I find quite extraordinary.

For an actor, it's great fun to play one of these hungry white sharks. Audiences love to hate them.

I've gotten burnt the last few years on a couple of little independent films where you get paid nothing, you work your ass off, there's no marketing budget except you going on every talk show. But you're seeing it all over. I mean, these disasters at NBC, with the morning show.

The hardest thing about sex scenes is that everybody is a judge.

I don't know the last time you murdered somebody or blew anyone's brains out, but everyone has had sex and probably this morning, which means everyone has an opinion on how it should be done.

It's difficult for me to meet women because my crowd is much older.

I know that for some of the young women I do meet, a relationship with me can be envisioned as a benefit to their career.

I'm questioning it. We're trying to get a lot of money for health and education and I'm wondering... You look at these gangs, and I look back at Prohibition. When we didn't allow alcohol, what did we have? We had gangs. We had big gangs. It's something that needs to be discussed a little more. It's an economic issue and a violence issue.