I just felt that if I went into Speed 2, I just… wouldn’t have come up out of the water.

There should be a point to movies. Sure, you’re giving people a diversion from the cold world for a bit, but at the same time, you pass on some facts and rules and maybe a little bit of wisdom.

I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.

Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.

Just because you’ve seen ‚My Cousin Vinny‘ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.

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

Effective action is always unjust.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

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.

Action expresses priorities.

A lot of people ask me when I do a stunt, ‚Jackie, are you scared?‘ Of course I’m scared. I’m not Superman.

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.

The original reason to start the project, which was that the Germans were a danger, started me off on a process of action, which was to try to develop this first system at Princeton and then at Los Alamos, to try to make the bomb work.

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.

Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

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.

At the major studios, you see people wanting to remake a TV series, wanting to make a sequel.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

I like Ryan Gosling as an actor. I watch all of his movies, and he’s Canadian and I just like his swag. I read his interviews and I’m a big fan of his.

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

Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

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

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

I started in action, and then I went to comedy school.

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’m not looking to get away from anything. I like what I’ve done. I like what I get to do and I enjoy working with my friends. I loved those movies, but this is incredible.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Well, everyone likes movies when they’re a little kid.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

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

Getting stress out of your life takes more than prayer alone. You must take action to make changes and stop doing whatever is causing the stress. You can learn to calm down in the way you handle things.

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.

The shortest answer is doing the thing.

Never confuse motion with action.

My old drama coach used to say, ‚Don’t just do something, stand there.‘ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

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.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

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

There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t. You just do the best you can.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

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 that much about who directs what movies, but I’m definitely inspired by the look of old movies; I find them to be really beautiful.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

Whenever I think about movies, I always look at that art process as having the best of a lot of worlds. Because if you watch a great film, you have a musical element to it, not just on the scoring, but in the way that the shots are edited – that has music and rhythm and time.

Movies are fun, but they are no cure for cancer.

To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.

I wasn’t allowed to go to movies when I was kid; my father was a minister. 101 Dalmatians and King of Kings, that was the extent of it.

The movies are the only business where you can go out front and applaud yourself.

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.

Personal success or personal satisfaction are not worth another thought if one does achieve them, or worth worrying about if they evade one or are slow in coming. All that is really worth while is action – faithful action, for the world, and in God.

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

I do love the films I’ve done in the past. I work hard in my movies and my friends work hard and we’re trying to make people laugh and I’m very proud of that.

Movies are not novels, and that’s why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost always failure. It can’t be done.