I have been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years, and in 1970, when I first started directing, I said, ‚If I could pull this off, I can some day move to the back of the camera and stay there.‘

If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.

I’m tired of fighting. I’ve always known that I can’t be an action star all my life.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

We will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it – not by turning it over to Wall Street.

There are certain age limits on police officers. They’d have retired me out at 65.

I became an actress because my mom wanted me to become an actress. It took me until my mid-30s to realize I actually didn’t. I actually wanted to write and direct and be more involved in politics and humanitarian issues.

One day, I want to make a PG film.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many great directors. Different styles, as well, like Gus Van Sant. He just does the casting and the milieu and let’s you do your thing, quietly. Bertolucci, who can talk to you about your internal world in quite a creative way or just say, ‚Well, put your hand over here.‘

I like the anonymity that directors can have about their films.

It is totally different making films in the East than in the West. In the East, I make my own Jackie Chan films, and it’s like my family. Sometimes I pick up the camera because I choreograph all the fighting scenes, even when I’m not fighting. I don’t have my own chair. I just sit on the set with everybody.

Community colleges play an important role in helping people transition between careers by providing the retooling they need to take on a new career.

Yes, we’ve still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years.

I was always interested – I mean, it’s kind of part of your job – I was always interested in the camera.

I will never retire from politics, the revolution, or the ideas I have.

I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

You can retire from a job, but don’t ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.

Many people will have nothing at the end of their working lives.

I always have a full-length mirror next to the camera when I’m doing publicity stills. That way, I know how I look.

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

I think if you make a good movie, people walk away arguing.

Every time I make American film I just trust American directors and American writers.

I just make good movies. That’s the way I thank my fans.

I’ve done films where we don’t rehearse, and I’ve done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.

I imagine I will be less involved in film and be focused more on family and foreign affairs.

I prefer directing to acting. There is huge freedom that comes from being behind the camera. It brings a lot of responsibilities as well but is intensely rewarding.

I’ve always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he’s been in front of the camera. He doesn’t have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.

At the end of the day, the TV show is the best job in the world. I get to go anywhere I want, eat and drink whatever I want. As long as I just babble at the camera, other people will pay for it. It’s a gift.

When I’m making an American film, it’s more safe because there are so many people on the set to watch me. Whatever I do, they say, ‚What are you doing!? Tell me first!‘ There are so many restrictions.

You want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a filmmaker? Start shooting stuff on your phone right now.

I’m always secretly the most pleased when a show just really, really looks good and when my camera guys are really happy with the images they got.

I will never retire unless I have to.

Eventually, it came to this place like, ‚I’d like to direct, but I need to find the story to tell.‘ ‚Man of Tai Chi‘ became the story to tell.

When I retire I’m going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.

My movies just kind of sneak up on you. I don’t have to worry too much about what everybody is going to say. Anyway, I really don’t pay attention to what the world says about my movies. I just care about what my buddies think.

I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife.

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.

Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad… he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.

Some people spend their lives building ultimate dream homes so they can enjoy their twilight years… Others spend their last days in nursing homes.

Working with a guy like Ice Cube on ‚Ride Along,‘ you learn so much. He’s a guy who produces, writes, and directs, so you watch and learn and ask questions. As you go, you learn and figure out what you should and shouldn’t do. I do nothing but soak up information.

I’m definitely looking forward to the day when I stop working – if I ever stop working. I like the idea of keeling over in my tomato vines in Sardinia or northern Italy.

On ‚Mystic River,‘ I had to cut my salary and everyone else’s to get it made.

Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it.

When I’m a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It’s somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.

I will never turn Medicare into a voucher. No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. They should retire with the care and dignity they have earned.

Social Security’s not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you’ve got to put all of it on the table.

I will make action movies, I think, for a few more years, another five years.

When I make a film – I direct my own film, I write my own script – that’s what I want to hear from the audience. ‚Oh, thank you, Jackie!‘

I have retired, but if there’s anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.

In America there’s no way I can make the kind of movie I like to make.

I probably would have retired years ago if I hadn’t found interesting things to do.

Alfred Hitchcock once told me, when I was analyzing a lot of things about his pictures, ‚Clint, you must remember, it’s only a movie.‘

Yes, I’m always – I’m always surprised when you make a film and you live with it a while and you put it out, you never dream that anybody is ever going to want to really see it.

Contemplation of life after retirement and life after death can help you deal with contemporary challenges.

If my films don’t show a profit, I know I’m doing something right.

The effort to try to present the Social Security program as if it’s a major problem, that’s just a hidden way of trying to undermine and destroy it.

I knew when my career was over. In 1965 my baseball card came out with no picture.

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.