I won’t let people write anything they want to about me.

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

I never like being touched, ever. People used to say I held my breath when they were hugging me. I still do.

Anonymous comments? You’re not in the arena, man. If you can’t say it to me in person in front of my kids, don’t say it.

I have practically no private life. I’m already used to this and ready for it. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but it is the choice I made.

If I feel anxious every time someone is staring at me, well, I can’t control what they stare at, but my reaction is, I’m just not going to go outside the house. I’m going to stay in and chill. And when I do go out, I understand what comes along with that.

The answer I found is you stay away from the people who make fun of you, and you join these ad hoc groups who understand your craziness.

I’m not comfortable being around too many people. I don’t like being out in public too much. I don’t like going to bars. I don’t like doing celebrity stuff. So most of the characters I play are people who don’t always feel comfortable beyond their small circle of friends.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

Give yourself more opportunities for privacy, when you are not bombarded with duties and obligations. Privacy is not a rejection of those you love; it is your deserved respite for recharging your batteries.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

I’ve learned that usually, the less I know about other people, the better off I am.

I can’t stand directors who try to micro-manage everything. When it happens these days I just walk off set, saying if they don’t like the way I’m doing it they can get someone else.

There are certain things that bother me and certain things that don’t. Personal attacks on me? I think I’m just so used to it.

Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with with your self-esteem. They’re no good at all.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.

The minute you start compromising for the sake of massaging somebody’s ego, that’s it, game over.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

If you’re nice to me I’ll never write anything bad about you.

I’ve always put everybody else’s child first before my own health, before my own outfit, before my own time frame.

Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.

The moment someone asks you to do something you don’t have the time or inclination to do is fraught with vulnerability.

I need privacy. I would think that because what I do makes a lot of people happy that I might deserve a little bit of respect in return. Instead, the papers try to drag me off my pedestal.

I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

I don’t dabble and spend much mind or time dealing with, I don’t know, people’s perceptions of me. I truly don’t.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

I hated to be treated as a child. I thought it was the worst situation.

Nobody is my boss.

I’m old enough and cranky enough now that if someone tried to tell me what to do, I’d tell them where to put it.

If somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re going to have to take what they get.

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.

Confidentially, the type of male I find most enjoyable for a friend is one who has enough fire and assurance to speak up for his convictions.

I think everyone should approach relationships from the perspective of playing it straight and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Until he establishes that this is a game. And if it’s a game, you need to win. The best thing to do is just walk away from the table.

I try to very hard to avoid a situation where I would be eating cat or dog; I’ve managed to gracefully avoid that. It’s hypocritical of me and an arbitrary line, but one that I have managed to avoid crossing.

I will never say something I don’t agree with or believe in… even if the reward is massive!

Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

If you’re yelling you’re the one who’s lost control of the conversation.

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

I think all documentaries leave out areas of people’s lives. Which is good. There are areas that need not be explored.

My concerts are about me being very private in public, but I’m very protective.

I know who I am, I know what I can and can’t do. I know what I will and won’t do. I know what I’m capable of and I don’t agree to do things that I don’t think I can pull off.

I don’t like people looking at someone else’s image.

I don’t compare myself to anyone else; I don’t make comments about anyone else because they do what feels right for them, and that’s okay by me.

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

There are other measures of self-respect for a man, than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

There was one incident at a movie theater where my girl got mad at these guys who were talking behind us. I never looked back there, but she was like, ‚Will you all just shut up!‘ And I just got up and moved three rows in front. She was like, ‚What are you doing?!‘ I was like, ‚You better get up here! I don’t play the fighting games.‘

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

If you don’t stand your ground, then all that happens is people push you backwards.

NBC had a show called ‚The Toughest Bouncer in America‘ that I did. But I told them I didn’t like that term, ‚bouncer.‘ To me, it’s offensive. A bouncer likes to get physical, likes to put his hands on people.

There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. ‚Good pride‘ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‚Bad pride‘ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.

I don’t want to write an autobiography because I would become public property with no privacy left.

The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.