Quotes by John Wayne
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Wikipedia Summary for John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor and filmmaker who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood’s Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies. His career flourished from the silent era of the 1920s through the American New Wave, as he appeared in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box office draws for three decades, and he appeared with many other important Hollywood stars of his era. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, but grew up in Southern California. He lost a football scholarship to the University of Southern California as a result of a bodysurfing accident, and began working for the Fox Film Corporation. He appeared mostly in small parts, but his first leading role came in Raoul Walsh's Western The Big Trail (1930), an early widescreen film epic which was a box-office failure. He played leading roles in numerous B movies during the 1930s, most of them also Westerns, without becoming a major name. It was John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) that made Wayne a mainstream star, and he starred in 142 motion pictures altogether. According to one biographer, "John Wayne personified for millions the nation's frontier heritage."Wayne's other roles in Westerns include a cattleman driving his herd on the Chisholm Trail in Red River (1948), a Civil War veteran whose niece is abducted by a tribe of Comanches in The Searchers (1956), a troubled rancher competing with a lawyer (James Stewart) for a woman's hand in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and a cantankerous one-eyed marshal in True Grit (1969), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor. He is also remembered for his roles in The Quiet Man (1952), Rio Bravo (1959) with Dean Martin, and The Longest Day (1962). In his final screen performance, he starred as an aging gunfighter battling cancer in The Shootist (1976). He made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 9, 1979 before succumbing to stomach cancer two months later. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the United States.
I want to play a real man in all my films and I define manhood simply; men should be tough fair and courageous; never petty, never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either.
I merely try to act naturally. If I start acting phony on the screen, you start looking at me instead of feeling with me.
The difference between acting and reacting is that in a bad picture, you see them acting all over the place. In a good picture, they react in a logical way to a situation they're in, so the audience can identify with the actors.
The hyphenated American is ridiculous. But that's what we have to put up with. I think that any person that's in the United States is better off here than they would be where they came from.
Let's say I hope that I appeal to the more carefree times in a person's life rather than to his reasoning adulthood. I'd just like to be an image that reminds someone of joy rather than of the problems of the world.
Most men hate to shop. That's why the men's department is usually on the first floor of a department store, two inches from the door.
You're going to think I'm being corny, but this is how I really feel: I hope my family and my friends will be able to say that I was an honest, kind and fairly decent man.
Courage is being scared to death -- and saddling up anyway A goal, A love and A dream give you total control over your body and your life.
Oscar and I have something in common. Oscar first came to Hollywood scene in 1928. So did I. We're both a little weather-beaten, but we're still here and plan to be around for a whole lot longer.
Paul Newman would have been a much more important star if he hadn't always tried to be an anti-hero, to show the human feet of clay.
There's right and there's wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you're living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.
Jesus Christ! I would crawl over the mountains of Beverly Hills on my hands and knees if I could do a movie with Doris Day!
I figured I needed a gimmick, so I dreamed up this drawl, the squint and a way of moving meant to suggest that I wasn't looking for trouble but would just as soon throw a bottle at your head as not. I practiced in front of a mirror.
I've always followed my father's advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.
Watergate is a sad and tragic incident in our history. They were wrong, dead wrong, those men at Watergate. Men abused power, but the system still works. Men abused money, but the system still works. Men lied and perjured themselves, but the system still .
Very few of the so-called liberals are open-minded.... They shout you down and won't let you speak if you disagree with them.
The West -- the very words go straight to that place of the heart where Americans feel the spirit of pride in their western heritage -- the triumph of personal courage over any obstacle, whether nature or man.
Government has no wealth, and when a politician promises to give you something for nothing, he must first confiscate that wealth from you -- either by direct taxes, or by the cruelly indirect tax of inflation.
I want to play a real man in all my films, and I define manhood simply:
men should be tough, fair, and courageous, never petty,
never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either.
Screw ambiguity. Perversion and corruption masquerade as ambiguity. I don't trust ambiguity. John Wayne.
Getting rid of a man without hurting his masculinity is a problem. Get out and I never want to see you again might sound like a challenge. If you want to get rid of a man, I suggest saying, I love you... I want to marry you... I want to have your children. Sometimes they leave skid marks.
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.
I don't want ever to appear in a film that would embarrass a viewer. A man can take his wife, mother, and his daughter to one of my movies and never be ashamed or embarrassed for going.
I read someplace that I used to make B-pictures. Hell, they were a lot farther down the alphabet than that ... but not as far down as R and X. I think any man who makes an X-rated picture ought to be made to take his own daughter to see it.
There's been no top authority saying what marijuana does to you. I really don't know that much about it. I tried it once but it didn't do anything to me.
Republic. I like the sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling.
I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from psychoanalyst's couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.
My main object in making a motion picture is entertainment. If at the same time I can strike a blow for liberty, then I'll stick one in.
If I depended on the critics' judgment and recognition, I'd never have gone into the motion-picture business.
There's right and there's wrong. Y'gotta do one or the other. Do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.
General MacArthur told me, You represent the American serviceman better than the American serviceman himself.
The guy you see on the screen isn't really me. I'm Duke Morrison, and I never was and never will be a film personality like JOHN WAYNE . I know him well. I'm one of his closest students. I have to be. I made a living out of him.
It's kind of a sad thing when a normal love of country makes you a super patriot. I do think we have a pretty wonderful country, and I thank God that He chose me to live here.
I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.
When the road looks rough ahead, remember the 'Man upstairs'
and the word HOPE.
Hang onto both and 'tough it out'.
You don't have to fight to be brave. Millions of good, fine, decent folks show more bravery than heavyweight champs just by getting out of bed every morning, going out to do a good day's work and living the best life they know how against the law of odds.
Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be.
Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home.
Male menopause is a lot more fun than female menopause. With female menopause you gain weight and get hot flashes. Male menopause ? you get to date young girls and drive motorcycles.
My hope and prayer is that everyone know and love our country for what she really is and what she stands for.
I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to the point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.
A friend of mine told me to shoot first and ask questions later. I was going to ask him why, but I had to shoot him.
I want to play a real man in all my films, and I define manhood simply: men should be tough, fair, and courageous, never petty, never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either.
I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please.
There's a lot of things great about life. But I thin tomorrow is the most important thing. It comes to us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.
I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.
- J.B Books in The Shootist 1976, directed by Don Siegel.
I would like to be remembered, well ... the Mexicans have a phrase, Feo fuerte y formal. Which means he was ugly, strong and had dignity.
True Grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done. No moral man can have peace of mind if he leaves undone what he knows he should have done.
I'd read up on the history of our country and I'd become fascinated with the story of the Alamo. To me it represented the fight for freedom, not just in America, but in all countries.
When you come to see a picture of mine, I want you to know that I'm not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you won't be disappointed in me.
I never have really become accustomed to the 'John.' Nobody ever really calls me John... I've always been Duke or Marion or John Wayne. It's a name that goes well together, and it's like one word -- John Wayne.
Everybody that I was in school with had an uncle or father in the law, and I started to realize that I was going to end up writing briefs for about ten years for these fellows who I thought I was smarter than. And I was kind of losing my feeling for that.
Nothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets.
I'm not the sort to back away from a fight. I don't believe in shrinking from anything. It's not my speed; I'm a guy who meets adversities head on.
I was sure I'd set the world on fire, and it was hard for a young feller like me to realize the truth -- that I hadn't set the world on fire, and I was totally unprepared to handle the consequences if 'The Big Trail' had been a success and launched me as a star.
When I was a sophomore at USC, I was a socialist, pretty much to the left. But not when I left the university. I quickly got wise. I'd read about what had happened to Russia in 1917 when the Communists took over.
I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.
Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity -- and I don't mean simple -- it'll be good, and the public will know it.
I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that's the way I am.
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.
