81+ Val Kilmer Quotes (Dramatic, Intense And Charismatic)

Val Kilmer is an American actor who has appeared in a variety of films and television shows. He is best known for his roles in Top Gun, Heat, The Doors, Batman Forever, and The Saint. He has also appeared in several independent films, such as The Salton Sea and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Top 10 Val Kilmer Quotes

1. Again, in Wag the Dog, war has to be declared by an act of congress. But if you go to war, you don't have to declare war. You're just at war and we did that, which is not legal.
2. Postman is a media analyst and his theory is that television doesn't influence our culture, but that it is our culture and the presidency and anything that relies on television.
3. I saw the horizon. It's out there. And though I may not ever be able to touch it, it's worth reaching for.
4. There is no normal life, there's just life. You live it.
5. I respect people who can do both careers, like Will Smith and a couple of other people who have done it, but I just don't know when they sleep.
6. Give me the compliments. I love compliments. I was born modest, but it wore off.
7. Without deadlines and restrictions I just tend to become preoccupied with other things.
8. A hundred million dollars in the art world is a substantial amount of cash to do anything.
9. I have two children and they're young yet but all of the children that I know really inspire me.
10. A lot of old guys in movies are like cowboys - they talk like cowboys and they dress like cowboys.

Val Kilmer Short Quotes

• My perception is that I've never done anything but work really hard.
• I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates when he said...I drank what?
• The first play I saw was a Samuel Beckett play which was great.
• It's the first time that I've ever had an art show based on a film, but it's a photography collage.
• My only "business plan" was to get lucky.
• I'm a better person when I'm preparing for a role, when I'm studying a role.
• I have never taken my career seriously. My only ambition was to grow as an actor.
• I'm very wary of news on television.
• Acting is very immediate.
• I love acting, and doing it well matters to me.

Val Kilmer Famous Quotes And Sayings

If you think that by threatening me you can get me to do what you want... well, that's where you're right. But - and I am only saying this because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing. — Val Kilmer

I liked being Doc Holliday. It's fun to be insightful and aristocratic, to stand up for your friend and make sacrifices for him. It was fun to be arrogant like he was and have the goods to back it up. He was a very noble character. Although, let's not forget, he did kill a lot of people. — Val Kilmer

The trick to being a good actor is getting so involved in your character that the camera disappears, the 50 bored guys eating doughnuts disappear, friends disappear. To get to that point when you don't have to think about it, you're just acting and reacting in those circumstances. — Val Kilmer

My only challenge is to entertain. And I accomplish my task better when I myself am entertained by what I am doing. I am very critical of myself, I constantly set the bar higher and higher. I try to surpass myself. That`s all. But I also know how to preserve myself, to not let myself get bedazzled by the smoke and mirrors. — Val Kilmer

It sounds corny to say, but the theater is sacred; something transcendent can occur, and when it does, everyone grows. It's a true communion. — Val Kilmer

There are only three reasons to do a movie: the cast, the director, the role. Like I say, you live in a minute of screen time, but to prepare for the minute takes much more than a day. You'd better be excited about what those moments are, even if they're the hardest moments. Or the smallest. — Val Kilmer

Jim Thompson understood something about the serial killer before the psychology caught up to it, which is that they are detached to it and they do want to get caught. — Val Kilmer

Warner Bros offered me the next Batman, and the only reason that I didn't do it was because of The Saint. — Val Kilmer

In order to be an artist and an actor, like tackling the classics in the theater as well as film, there's lots of discipline, lots of work, physical work put in. — Val Kilmer

You just don't understand humility until you have children and get divorced. I was very hurt and very angry and so was she. But when kids are involved, you either become friends with respect or you become mortal enemies. — Val Kilmer

Big movies are fun and it`s great to fly on private jets and make a lot of money and all the things that are connected with Hollywood, but they take a lot of your own life. — Val Kilmer

Interesting characters are troubled characters. The only problem I've had in my business is very few people - unfortunately, very vocal - confusing the difficult role that I play with me. I play these guys, but I'm not like them. I've been accused of being difficult to work with. — Val Kilmer

I fell in love with the land and with the very old fashioned idea of leaving a physical legacy for my children. A stunning place, with a magnificent forest of trees, and a magnificent river. — Val Kilmer

Acting is not a science. Anybody who believes that their success exists in relation to their goals is deluding themselves; unless you think of a career in terms of financial goals. I have nothing against Tom Cruise, but he must have a large capacity to deal with the business side of movies. — Val Kilmer

Mark Twain was an artist working at the highest level. He wrote a book, his masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that put America on the world stage for literature. It's almost as if, if you start reading that book as a racist, you cannot finish it and still be a racist. — Val Kilmer

Art is a way to get strength from something that is life-affirming. It can be quite violent and still be life-affirming. — Val Kilmer

I went to public school in L.A., so I felt like I'd been in a coma for three years. I woke up, and moved to New York. — Val Kilmer

I learned a long time ago that place matters to me, on many levels, and maybe more than it should, but it is generally counter-productive for me to resist it. — Val Kilmer

Performing in a live theater is absolutely unbeatable. It is something I have done my entire life and have a gift, it seems, for sharing thoughts live. — Val Kilmer

It seems to me that every step forward in my life has been one that brings me to a better understanding of this: that you do your thing every day the best that you can, and you approach any success at it with humility. — Val Kilmer

Everything in high school was reversed. If marijuana was supposed to make you mellow, I would be like, "The cops, the cops, the cops..." I was what you call the buzz kill. — Val Kilmer

My first girlfriend in high school, I had a girlfriend in grade school, but my first girlfriend in high school was Mare Winningham, very fine actress. — Val Kilmer

Where [a]can you trust your own thoughts and your own intentions? Everywhere, hopefully, but it isn't always that easy. Sometimes, you have to help yourself along. — Val Kilmer

I probably complained more when I was younger. The movie industry can be frustrating but I think sometimes I could have been more helpful, approaching a film as a partnership rather than being critical of a director's ignorance. I wasn't sensitive to the fact that it's very hard to direct. — Val Kilmer

Mark Twain is a universe, and he is also a kind of American authority figure. He can say things to America that other people can't say, in a way that can truly be heard. — Val Kilmer

Sometimes, I wonder what I'm doing back in Los Angeles, but when you look out there... How can you complain when you see a whale cresting, matter-of-factly, as you make your breakfast? — Val Kilmer

It may or may not sound pretentious. But I`ve turned down, consciously and specifically, many jobs I knew would have been a pretty surefire way to go about making a lot of money, being recognized and gaining power in the industry. — Val Kilmer

I'm fairly sure I didn't show enough gratitude to my employers, and I'm sorry for that. — Val Kilmer

Doing my first movie, I realized I could get into real bad habits. If you're the star, all you have to do is show up, and 20 people say, 'Do you want anything? What is it? Let me get it for you.' Believe me, you get spoiled very quickly. I saw some of my contemporaries allow themselves to have that fame, thinking they could handle it. It messed them up. — Val Kilmer

The Secret Service is a strange group. They don't really have a leader. It's not set up like a military. Each one is supposed to be able to act like a leader when something comes up. — Val Kilmer

I don't make any pretense about being normal. I'm not. — Val Kilmer

If you look up the definition of news in the dictionary, it isn't what you watch on TV. — Val Kilmer

I was in love with Tina Goodman since I was three and her parents came popping out of the trash cans. I think it made a big impression on me. — Val Kilmer

It`s always been the same for me. I`ve always enjoyed acting, and I really love good actors; they`re such unique characters. I wish I could tell stories well, or tell a joke. Any time someone can do that it`s so satisfying. Sean Penn, for instance, is a really good actor, and he can tell a good joke or story. But it`s hard to do. Most actors have special talents that make them attractive, but they`re often odd characters. — Val Kilmer

If you play Mark Twain and he's not funny, you are definitely not playing Mark Twain. That was the biggest challenge, in some ways. Writing and performing jokes that can come out of that brilliant delivery system he constructed: the friendly, avuncular truth-teller. — Val Kilmer

News is something that happens that matters to you, which is not most of what we watch on television. — Val Kilmer

I'm not just an actor born in L.A. I was born in the Griffith Park Hospital. You can't get any more clichéd than that. — Val Kilmer

I was looking for projects, as you always are, and I read this scene . . . and I'm in the Hollywood Hills. So I thought, 'This is interesting.' You have this setup that seems to be based in some reality and you can only wonder where Black's going to go with this. — Val Kilmer

The only time it`s ever like work is when you don`t like what you`ve done. I`m very lucky in that I haven`t cultivated fame. Which, from what I`ve seen of my contemporaries, takes an enormous amount of time. I have a lot of respect for people that do it and they`re successful at it ... Especially people that aren`t such talented actors. — Val Kilmer

It hurts. I miss my kids. I miss my kids in so many ways that I can`t explain. — Val Kilmer

New Mexico is my home. It has never been anything but home. The ranch has rivers and canyon, everything imaginable. I can ride, hunt and fish. At the same time, ranching is grueling, difficult work. It`s like acting, to be successful at it, you have to work hard. I take it very seriously. — Val Kilmer

It was very serious and I wanted to do something really different so there was this comedy called TOP SECRET. — Val Kilmer

I sang the songs in 'The Doors'. — Val Kilmer

If you know where your spiritual center is, and you neglect it, peace will always allude you. — Val Kilmer

I think spiritual perception comes from natural and healthy relationship to the land and I've had that. I get an easy, automatic sense of myself in nature, a wholeness and I feel nowhere else. I think people should live where praying is most immediate. That`s why I live in New Mexico. The physical terrain, the feeling, the environment and culture improve my life just by waking up there. — Val Kilmer

So it`s always helped me to have a foundation, an ideal to strive for and goals. It`s hard for me to be disciplined and plan things. — Val Kilmer

Once is more than generous for any lifetime. — Val Kilmer

It's important to be yourself. What art does for everyone, helps you understand yourself and in a distilled way, whether it's a painting or a scene in acting or a joke. It distills something about everyday life that can be important to you. — Val Kilmer

YouTube is a new experience for me-someone threw a laptop in front of me and showed me Nic Cage going mad, which has got to be the funniest thing on YouTube. He's so courageous. — Val Kilmer

There are some directors I should have worked with. I`d like to have worked with Robert Altman - I turned him down a couple of times when I was younger. My thing now is if it`s a good director I`ll never say no - I`m just gonna say yes from now on. — Val Kilmer

That's the joy of art - it should be dangerous and challenging but it's just art - it's safe. — Val Kilmer

You never quiet the love message. Never. — Val Kilmer

I've found that Hollywood's a really honest business. They don't pull any punches. They tell you exactly what you want-I want the fake breasts and the flat car and the big pool. You know, they're real up-front about it. — Val Kilmer

It looked like it might not work out with Michael Keaton, so they asked Joel Schumacher, `Who do you want for Batman?` When he said me, I asked my agent, `Why? Who did they not get?` I`d met with Joel a couple of times before about other (movies). I didn`t know anything in terms of the cast, story or anything, but I said, `Sure, sounds like fun.` - On accepting his role as Batman. — Val Kilmer

Gregory Peck was so charismatic. I saw a woman fall down - fall down! - when she saw him in a restaurant. And Brando. We were in London, and by then he was about 380 pounds. There was a gorgeous waitress, and off he went, in direct competition with me for this young girl's attention, speaking French, making her blush. — Val Kilmer

Partly because the town is just finicky, there are strange Catch 22 clauses in the consciousness of this community and one of them was that you, I found out, you can't do a comedy unless you've just done a comedy. — Val Kilmer

Well I sure had been looking for a comedy for years without any success. — Val Kilmer

I don't believe in death. I think it's just a state of mind. — Val Kilmer

Do what you like to do so well that someone will pay you wages for it. — Val Kilmer

Mark Twain is a voice of truth and a voice of equality and a voice of tolerance. Which means he is a voice of love. — Val Kilmer

The audience and I have an intimacy that is, I believe, rare, most times out. — Val Kilmer

Life Lessons by Val Kilmer

1. Val Kilmer has demonstrated the importance of hard work and dedication, having taken on a wide range of roles throughout his career.
2. He has also shown that it is possible to balance a successful acting career with other pursuits, such as his work as a painter and poet.
3. Val Kilmer's career is a testament to the power of perseverance and the rewards that come with taking risks and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.