I have a love interest in every one of my films: a gun.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.

I am really proud that I am one of the artists that has the opportunity to be on magazine covers and to be in the movies.

It’s hard work making movies. It’s like being a doctor: you work long hours, very hard hours, and it’s emotional, tense work. If you don’t really love it, then it ain’t worth it.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

Later on they send me to Hollywood. To make movies. It was all new to me. I was only 21 years old.

I don’t know if she should worry too much, I mean some of our greatest writers have had movies made of their books, lots of Hemingway novels were turned into movies, it doesn’t hurt the book.

Those movies sure got me into a rut.

I’ve never been that much of a money guy. I’m more of a film guy, and most of the money I’ve made is in defense of trying to keep creative control of my movies.

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

I love music, and after my first experience with movies, I can’t wait to do more.

I knew by heart all the dialogue of James Dean’s films; I could watch Rebel Without a Cause a hundred times over.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

Action expresses priorities.

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

When I was making ‚Star Wars,‘ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, ‚I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.‘

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

When the first big paycheque with ‚Dumb And Dumber‘ hit, I went: ‚Gosh, I wonder if this will affect my performance. Will I do a take and think, was that worth $7 million?‘ But that never happened. If anything, it made me rebel against that thing when people who get rich start playing it safe.

My folks always let me go to the movies every Saturday. We were really motion-picture goers.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

Effective action is always unjust.

To learn something but not to do is really not to learn. To know something but not to do is really not to know.

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

Editing is now the easiest thing on earth to do, and all the things that evolved out of word processing – ‚Oh, let’s put that sentence there, let’s get rid of this‘ – have become commonplace in films and music too.

I was born. When I was 23 I started telling jokes. Then I started going on television and doing films. That’s still what I am doing. The end.

All fiction is about people, unless it’s about rabbits pretending to be people. It’s all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that’s what we call ‚the plot‘.

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

Human beings need stories, and we’re looking for them in all kinds of places; whether it’s television, whether it’s comic books or movies, radio plays, whatever form, people are hungry for stories.

Meditation is not to avoid society; it is to look deep to have the kind of insight you need to take action. To think that it is just to sit down and enjoy the calm and peace, is wrong.

I met Will Smith twice. I didn’t talk to him for too long but I was trying to let him know that my age group grew up watching him – he was the coolest guy on television and the coolest guy in movies.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

I never thought, in my lifetime, that you’d be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.

Justice is truth in action.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

I’m not someone who sits at home and doesn’t like to go out, doesn’t like to watch movies. I like to live my life.

I know about two things: ‚Rocky III‘ and Clubber Lang, and ‚A-Team‘ and B.A. Baracus. That’s who I am!

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

Life guided me to being a bodyguard, protecting people, then in the movies, so I’m happy with everything because basically all I ever wanted to do was be a good son and take care of my mother.

I was never interested in being powerful or famous. But once I got to film school and learned about movies, I just fell in love with it. I didn’t care what kind of movies I made.

I’ll continue to make the typical Adam Sandler comedies.

I didn’t watch ‚The A-Team‘ movie. I’m an artist. You can’t re-paint a Rembrandt. You can’t duplicate that; I don’t care who you get.

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?

Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Obviously, the cinematography of films is art, just as a still shot can be art. If I’m watching a Wes Anderson movie, the colour palettes alone, and the way they’re painted, could be art. With music, you’re a little bit limited, of course, because it’s only audio.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

Action is character.

The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset – tears are words waiting to be written.