Kevin Costner Quotes (59 Quotes)

I don't feel the need to direct. I tried to get other people to direct Dances, but they wouldn't do it. They all thought it was too long. One director wanted to cut the Civil War sequence. Another thought the white woman was very cliched.

We recognize ourselves in Westerns, ... I believe the Western can orchestrate moments around reality. The reality can be as entertaining to us as the lie.

When I read Thirteen Days I was moved by it. It was just a great time for the world, in terms of looking back in history and seeing how we got ourselves into trouble and how we got ourselves out of trouble.

He seemed like a normal guy to me, and a little bit probably even above average when you consider that he knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life and who he wanted to be with and where he wanted to stay.

I haven't tried to buffer myself. I like rolling the dice.

I'm glad movies aren't going to please everybody, they can't. But what they have to be is recognisable. I don't equate myself with a master painter, but I think you can recognise my films.

We still live with this unbelievable threat over our heads of nuclear war. I mean, are we stupid? Do we think that the nuclear threat has gone, that the nuclear destruction of the planet is not imminent? It's a delusion to think it's gone away.

I like when my face tingles, when the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

I enjoy sports. I get a real joy from playing sports but I don't look for those movies. Oliver Stone wanted to know if I would do Any Given Sunday and it just didn't appeal to me.

Money isn't a major motivating force in my life. Nor is my profession. There are other things that I care more about than being an actor.

Anybody can start a movie off where their family is killed, and then for the next two hours there is this gigantic blood lust that you're supposed to accept because anybody can tie into the idea of revenge,

I'm getting those familiar feelings, and I'm just going to enjoy the process of getting to know someone again.

I work for the public, for the people who are paying to go to the cinema, rather than for the critics.

What are we blaming? Is this Vietnam? We made a movie, it didn't make much money. I'm gonna be really happy if somebody watches it in 10 years' time and really enjoys it.

When I played Robin Hood, I knew the great role was Alan Rickman's and it didn't bother me. I always think that leading actors should be called the best supporting actors.

I am not a cynic.

I'm only interested in being a good actor and in being remembered for my best films, not for the way I look. But it seems inevitable in this line of work that I have to care about the way I look without getting obsessed about it.

President Kennedy was willing to go to war. He was not a coward. The man had been in war and so had Ken O'Donnell. He was ready to protect this nation, but he was not ready for a military solution just because it was being rammed down his throat.

I stand up for what I believe. I don't know if it's always paid off for me, because I've been ridiculed and humiliated.

You have to pick the stories that you want to be involved with and the end game is you'd like to be a part of a hit. But I think your moral obligation is to follow your own heart.

I think there are good men and women in all decades. We've grown cynical. And look at what we do to all our heroes: Churchill, FDR, Kennedy, they all had affairs. But heroic things happen every day.

I'd like to put on buckskins and a ponytail and go underwater with a reed, hiding from the Indians... To me, that's sexy

I mean if I spent that money and didn't have a movie, there should be some questions. The question is, can this movie return its investment I believe it can.

There's a model of bravery in terms of career and the kind of movies he's tried to do. And the fact that he's still doing it -- I mean, he's as good as anybody who's ever done this. And if you think it's real easy, look around. There's not many guys like him.

If it's going to be wrecked, I want to make sure I wreck it.

I believe people who go into politics want to do the right thing. And then they hit a big wall of re-election and the pettiness of politics. In the end, politics gets in the way of the business of people.

I'm a pretty convenient foil for a lot of people.

When I make a film I'm away from home for two to three months. So I want my kids to look at my films one day and say, I love his movies, I love his choices-because he loved them.

I remember when I was growing up. . . . when you can say that, when you have those memories, you can consider yourself blessed.

I wanted to see the debates and I believe in the quality of the argument. I don't vote party line. I vote for the best person. I am a purist.

It sounds vain, but I could probably make a difference for almost everyone I ever met if I chose to involve myself with them either professionally or personally.'

I have seen soldiers panic at the first sight of battle, and a wounded squire pulling arrows out from his wound to fight and save his dyinghorse. Nobility is not a birth right but is defined by one's action.

I'm proud of all the movies I've made. They're not sequels, they're not franchises. And the reason I pick my films carefully is that I don't want to spit on my life. I like to think of myself as more than that.

We all have that burning question about what happens if we lose somebody we love, especially if we lose them tragically. We wonder what fear was going on, we wonder if we could have reached out and touched them, held their hand, looked in their eyes, been there.

I've been around where I knew other actors were going to steal the scene, and I don't compete with them.

There are a lot of things that come to bear on movies now that I don't think are good for movies. They're trying to appeal to the biggest demographic and, when they do that, you sometimes flatten out.

If you don't understand your limitations you won't achieve much in your life.

And I know that in times like now that we live in, sometimes you got to find a code of honor.

I'm a big fan of dreams. Unfortunately, dreams are our first casualty in life - people seem to give them up, quicker than anything, for a 'reality.'

Lincoln was the greatest speaker and he was ridiculed for how he looked, you know?

This tournament would never take place and be as popular as it is without the hard work and dedication of the thousands of volunteers who give of their time and energy. This is our way of saying thank you to them for all that they do.

I've had some movies that have been ridiculed, but that's OK with me. I don't feel that really defines me. Should I change who I am to be popular?

You have to decide if you're going to wilt like a daisy or if you're just going to go forward and live the life that you've been granted.

Back then, a test screening of the film prompted audiences to beg not to kill the wolf, ... Well, I understand, but bad things have to happen. That's real. There's death in 'Bambi.' That's real.

I don't think I ever take huge risks, though I'm not scared of doing so.

Field of Dreams is probably our generation's It's A Wonderful Life.

There is a moment in time in a Western, unlike maybe any other genre, where you can sit in the dark and you can really measure yourself against another man or woman, and you can see a code of honor,

We stand our best chance of leaving a legacy to those who want to learn, our children, by standing firm. In matters of style, hey, swing with the stream. But in matters of principle, you need to stand like a rock.

I think these movies are as much for people of that time as for people who weren't born. For people who weren't born, they see how leaders must act under a crisis situation, not trying to be re-elected or not trying to check polls, that they go from their gut check.

Being a celebrity is probably the closest to being a beautiful woman as you can get.