Sylvester Stallone Quotes
Actor, Director
I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.
I am not the richest, smartest or most talented person in the world, but I succeed because I keep going and going and going.
There's a natural law of karma that vindictive people, who go out of their way to hurt others, will end up broke and alone.
When I was in junior high school, the teachers voted me the student most likely to end up in the electric chair.
For 'Rocky II,' I got a torn pectoral muscle, I got all beat up inside, I had to have an operation to splice things back together.
When life hits you pretty hard, you can go into a dark corner.
I believe any success in life is made by going into an area with a blind, furious optimism.
Success is usually the culmination of controlling failure.
I believe there's an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts.
Every time I've failed, people had me out for the count, but I always come back.
Playing polo is like trying to play golf during an earthquake.
We're all expendable. We think the world's going to stop when a pope dies, or a king. And then... life goes on.
I could start a war in 30 seconds. But some countries spend 100 years trying to find peace. Just like good manners, peace has to be learned.
I have all kinds of chest injuries; I tore my vein during 'Rocky II' and had 60 stitches. If you've seen 'Rocky Balboa,' you'll know how bad they look.
Life is more than sunglasses and hit movies. Reality - that's the main event.
I have great expectations for the future, because the past was highly overrated.
At the end of the day, 'Rocky' is a love story, and he could never have reached the final bell without Adrian.
I'm always looking for a new challenge. There are a lot of mountains to climb out there. When I run out of mountains, I'll build a new one.
Once in one's life, for one mortal moment, one must make a grab for immortality; if not, one has not lived.
I've been involved in something which was chaotic and insane. All I can say now is that I am, and intend to stay, a single man.
I made some truly awful movies. 'Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot' was the worst. If you ever want someone to confess to murder just make him or her sit through that film. They will confess to anything after 15 minutes.
A lot of guys have muscles. A lot of strong men in this world. I think it's important to show that even under all this strength there's a fragile side, a side that can be affected.
The biggest and most interesting crisis in the world is the human crisis, and it never gets boring. It goes back to Shakespeare. You don't need a gimmick; it's just man against man and their intolerance of each other.
Clothing is the first step to building a character.
I'm a patriot of the heart.
When I'm on a location, I pick a restaurant that's close and private and eat all my meals there.
Suddenly I've got an overwhelming desire to surround myself with the aura of classical and Romantic art.
I think that gravity sets into everything, including careers, but pendulums do swing and mountains do become valleys after a while... if you keep on walking.
I know I'm incredibly unpredictable, and that's the only thing I'm sure of.
Painting is as close as a person can get to actually capturing the heat of the moment.
I respect a woman too much to marry her.
Years ago I was diagnosed with a condition, and my doctors prescribed human growth hormone and testosterone for its treatment. Under medical supervision, I have continued to use both medications.
If you express yourself too much, you're considered weak.
People don't realize that when they 'throw out' their back, it's often because of weak abs. These muscles are essential for lower-back strength and good posture.
When you're scared, when you're hanging on, when life is hurting you, then you're going to see what you're really made of.
I was very much into buying contemporary art, but I've just decided I want to get rid of it all. Not that it's not great art, but all of a sudden my mood has changed, and I want to go back to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century masters.
It would be great to be able to pass on to someone all of the successes, the failures, and the knowledge that one has had. To help someone, avoid all the fire, pain and anxiety would be wonderful.
If you don't have a mountain, build one and then climb it. And after you climb it, build another one; otherwise you start to flatline in your life.
I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.
I have tons of regrets, but I think that's one of the reasons that push people to create things. Out of their angst, their regret, comes the best from artists, painters and writers.
The action movies changed radically when it became possible to Velcro your muscles on. It was the beginning of a new era. The visual took over. The special effects became more important than the single person. That was the beginning of the end.
I'll always have this blue-collar connection. For every guy, there is an opportunity to be a lot better than he thought he could be. We can't all be the star of the team, but we can be a star in our life.
Boxing is sort of an inevitability. We know they are going to be pounding each other.
When I saw 'Hercules,' my mind just exploded because I was extremely thin; I was insecure. I literally ran out of the theatre and started lifting things, anything I could think of - milk crates. I'm still lifting things. It changed my life.
'Rocky' represents the optimistic side of life, and 'Rambo' represents purgatory.
You have to be really loyal to the people that supported you when you were coming up.
The trouble with remakes is that people fall in love with the original. It's like peanut butter. If you try to change the taste of peanut butter, you're in trouble.
All good actors are unpredictable, and a little crazy in a good way, because they feel more secure playing other people than themselves.
I try to combine in my paintings cinematic feeling, emotional feeling, and sometimes actually writing on the page to combine all the different elements of communication.
In a contest between me and a bulldog, you would say the bulldog is cuter.
When I'm doing a movie, I eat the same thing every day. For lunch, it's tuna salad or chicken salad and cole slaw. That's it. For dinner it's either veal and rice, fish and rice or steak and rice. It gets boring; boy, does it get boring.
I think that's become passe, but if you can surround yourself with a kind of monument to yourself and your family - a statement - and you can afford it, then that's a noble project.
I'm not right wing, I'm not left wing. I love my country.
I tend to think of action movies as exuberant morality plays in which good triumphs over evil.
When you're on top and you lead the parade, everyone's there throwing lilies and lilac water on your head. But when those parades have gone by and there's a storm in your heart, there are very few people that are going to sit there and listen to you bemoan life.
I'm more focused and have a greater sense of challenge, because I constantly feel the weight of time.
I believe an artist dies twice. The first time, it's just terrible - I've been there when the phone isn't ringing for years.
Don't be gullible, use life before it uses you. Understand there are no free lunches, and for every action you take, there's a reaction.
I love being verbal in films.
People assume that 'The Expendables' is old school, but it's only old school because that's the way I know how to make an action film. It's pretty real.
Every morning, I crawl out of bed. I sit there and think, 'Do I really need this?' And I drag myself to the gym in my garage. It's not fun. I hate it. I work out alone. Weights.
My favorite snack would have to be Fritos, no doubt about it. Fritos and mayonnaise. I know. Really healthy, isn't it?
I've kind of fashioned my life after a Slinky. Bend me in a million shapes, and eventually I'll spring back to what I originally was.
If you think people are inherently good, you get rid of the police for 24 hours - see what happens.
I have a fear of heights that borders on mania.
You've got to show your soul otherwise you're just a piece of equipment.
There's no one in the world close to Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is a phenomenon. He's brilliant. Just because his physique belies that, don't underestimate him.
Quite often in acting, you have to play a certain part; you cannot speak as much as you want to speak.
From the time I got dressed in the back of a deflated, flat-tired, fish-smelling station wagon for Rocky. It's always been do it yourself, kind of like paper-clip it together.
Voices are like fingerprints, from Cagney to Bogart. They never lost it. My voice is instrumental in categorizing me.
I think audiences have hit the wall with CGI and special effects. They have seen so many over-the-top events that they can't suspend disbelief.
I used to tweet, but it's an act of futility. You're not really making any impact, and if you find yourself in a mood when you wanna be a bit controversial and you post something, you suddenly realise, 'Oh my God!' because you've opened yourself up to a bunch of criticism from strangers.
I think I'm a much better painter than an actor.
Today's action hero, his skills are through technology. He can fly, he can throw a bolt of lightning, he can freeze people.
I just fight in my movies, never in real life.
I was an insecure kid. Once I saw 'Hercules' with Steve Reeves, it completely changed my life. If I had never gone to that film, I wouldn't be here today.
You know what I think happened? After 'Rocky,' I was almost set up in the eyes of the media to make a flop.
People asked if I could have played the Terminator. Are you kidding? Not a chance, I never could have played the Terminator.
I consider myself something of a raconteur. I have a rather audacious sense of humour.
What I'm trying to do now in my life - not just with the building, but with everything - is to construct things that will have enduring qualities, and won't just be ephemeral flashes in the pan.
In the movies, I kill guys with an axe. In real life, I can't control a nine-year-old girl.
I wish I had thought of Velcro muscles myself. I didn't have to go to the gym for all those years, all the hours wedded to the iron game, as we call it.
You know you've been around when they start to remake your own movies when you're still alive.
For every guy, there is an opportunity to be a lot better than he thought he could be. We can't all be the star of the team, but we can be a star in our life. That's where you set your goal.
I was an ambitious child and I tended to be scatterbrained. If I was at school and saw a bird outside the window I wanted to follow it. I was adventurous.
All young men want to prove themselves.
I am a sensitive writer, actor and director. Talking business disgusts me. If you want to talk business, call my disgusting personal manager.
Whenever I don't get injured, the film is a dud. I didn't bleed on 'Rhinestone.' I didn't bleed on 'Stop! Or My Mom will Shoot.'
I have two lovely sons and some good memories, but I've had a rather tumultuous personal life. It hasn't been dull; I've been the Hiroshima of love.
Some actors are brilliant character guys. They submerge.
You are what you leave behind.
Usually whenever you're scared of something, do it. If you're not afraid of it, don't do it.
Now it really is, believe it or not, 90% of the films are green lit, not by the studio heads, but by the marketing department.
I think everyone has a certain kind of formula in their life. When you deviate from that formula, you're going to fail big or you're gonna win big.
Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older.
The body needs to rest. It needs a lot less exercise than you think.
Just because society says I'm old doesn't mean I am.
Crunches are much more effective than regular sit-ups because they specifically target your upper abdominal muscles rather than your hip muscles. If you're not used to them, they can cause soreness a day or two later, but it's a 'cool' soreness. A badge of honor.
Nothing's harder than writing. There's no comparison. With directing, you can bounce a lot of ideas around. There's tremendous support - you've got editors and sound mixers. With writing, it's all you, and it's just crippling when people tear up your pages.
Like I said, I've got too much respect for women to marry them, but that doesn't mean you can't support them emotionally and financially.