The next thing I knew, I was out of the service and making movies again. My first picture was called, GI Blues. I thought I was still in the army.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‚What are you doing for others?‘

I like the idea of working in different genres and transcending genres and hopefully finding success, and ultimately make movies people like.

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 watch television and I rarely go to the cinema, but I recently watched ‚The King’s Speech‘ on a flight. It was so beautiful and so simple.

Film is not an easy occupation. There’s a lot of occupations that are difficult and film is one of them.

When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.

When you are an actor, you have to stay inside this world, but when you are with the crew, on the outside, you are in the dirt, working through all the issues. It’s just a different way of working, and I think I preferred it.

I am not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other motion picture company.

I have a producing partner named Stephen Hamel, and we’ve been trying to generate material.

When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and in movies. I grew up believing this dream.

I love the movies, and when I go to see a movie that’s been made from one of my books, I know that it isn’t going to be exactly like my novel because a lot of other people have interpreted it. But I also know it has an idea that I’ll like because that idea occurred to me, and I spent a year, or a year and a half of my life working on it.

In every movie I do have a dialogue.

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.

Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners.

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

I doubt that the Lord cares much which honorable vocation you choose. But He does care if you love one another and serve one another.

We give speeches and pin ribbons onto uniforms, etch names into walls. And all that is fine, but too often, all those tributes, all those words aren’t always backed up by action. And that felt like such a stark contrast to me, because, as we all know, our military is all about action.

The sergeant is the Army.

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.‘

One thing I just want to say to the military families – while you might not wear a uniform, I know – we all know, the nation knows – that you serve and sacrifice right alongside of your loved ones. And we are so grateful and proud of all of you for your service to this nation.

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 get impatient with people working on a film that have their head in their hands like it’s the most complicated thing in the world.

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

I don’t want people saying, ‚Should we get a female director?‘ I want to hear, ‚Should we get a great director for this movie?‘

I love good film, whether it’s an independent or studio film. The independent films, I think the good ones aren’t necessarily eccentric ones but they’re the more specific ones.

Everything I learned I learned from the movies.

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

I did 20 years in the Navy. I joined the Navy right out of high school and went through Navy boot camp, went to SEAL training, got done with that, and then showed up at a SEAL team, where I did 20 years. That was pretty much my whole adult life.

When trouble breaks out, our men and women in uniform, they don’t just sit around thinking about it or talking about it – they act. They put on that uniform. They leave their loved ones behind. They go out there. They give orders. They follow orders. They do whatever it takes to keep our country safe.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

The army is the true nobility of our country.

The gods‘ service is tolerable, man’s intolerable.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

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.‘

Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.

I’ve always loved the idea of playing Black Adam.

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

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

I am a giant proponent of giant screens. But I accept the fact that most of my movies are going to be seen on phones.

But I do believe that there’s going to be a time where all movies are going to be made in 3D and it’s just going to be a given, and that is going to be an exciting time.

A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.

For many, Christmas is also a time for coming together. But for others, service will come first.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

I didn’t want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, ‚Why did you do that?‘ This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.

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

If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.

Changes are not unusual – I mean, most movies, when they release them, they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

A company is a group organized to create a product or service, and it is only as good as its people and how excited they are about creating. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. I just happen to be the face of the companies.

This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country.

I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn’t until I was about 30 that I got serious about writing prose. While I was writing poems, I would often divert myself by reading detective novels; I liked them.

Here at home, when Americans were standing in long lines to give blood after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we squandered an obvious opportunity to make service a noble cause again, and rekindle an American spirit of community.

I have an immense amount of respect for acting. I’ve always loved movies and was always fascinated by movie-making. But to become an actor, I wanted to commit myself.

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

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.

As we all know, sequels can be tricky.

Hollywood has a way of making everything seem like an overnight success.

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

Get off your butt and join the Marines!

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