Refusing Quotes

See also Refuse Quotes

(on refusing the role of Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967), the role that made Dustin Hoffman a star seven years before Redford obtained super-star status himself) I never did look like a 21-year-old just out of college who`d never been laid.

- Robert Redford

(On refusing to grant clemency to condemned killer Stanley Tookie Williams) After studying the evidence, searching the history, listening to the arguments and wrestling with the profound consequences, I could find no justification for granting clemency. The facts do not justify overturning the jury`s verdict, or the decisions of the courts in this case.

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

I just didn`t see myself in Amistad (1997). I ain`t putting no chains around my neck. I`m not in the mood right now, too edgy. It just wasn`t for me. I`m not having it. I`m like, `Yeah, that`s what happened then, but how about me cutting everybody`s head off and end the movie there?` (on refusing the role in Amistad (1997))

- Denzel Washington

(on refusing to take his shirt off for fans at conventions) Nobody was interested until the episode when I kissed Buffy, then wham. (March 29, 2005)

- James Marsters

For a war correspondent to miss an invasion is like refusing a date with Lana Turner.

- Robert Capa

A man can no more diminish God`s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word `darkness` on the walls of his cell.

- C.S. Lewis

(About being held up at an airport for refusing to be parted from the manuscript of her seventh "Harry Potter" book): The heightened security restrictions on the airlines made the journey back from New York interesting, as I refused to be parted from the manuscript of book seven. A large part of it is handwritten and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the U.S. They let me take it on thankfully, bound up in elastic bands. I don`t know what I would have done if they hadn`t -- sailed home probably.

- J.K. Rowling

Refusing to ask for help when you need it is refusing someone the chance to be helpful.

- Ric Ocasek

When I was about to start Oldboy I was somewhat concerned about making two films on vengeance back to back. I even thought about refusing the project but my wife convinced me to by saying, `If the story`s interesting, isn`t that all that matters?` Then reporters kept asking me about the two vengeance films and why I was doing them one after the other. It felt like they were criticizing me for choosing to tell horrible stories, instead of taking up one of the beautiful ones. And then, before I realized it, I`d announced that I wasn`t just making two, but three films on vengeance. It was actually just a spontaneous statement in an interview, and I regretted it deeply, but I couldn`t take something back I said in public. So you could say the trilogy owes its conception to Korean journalists.

- Chan-wook Park

The notion is we`re refusing to see Blue Cross Blue Shield patients, ... That couldn`t be further from the truth.

- Robert Russell

Having no diplomatic representation in Washington, China has no sources which allow her to check the character of applicants and therefore makes the practice of refusing everybody from the United States.

- Akitsugu Bandou

Setting a timetable for exit in Iraq is a mistake, but so is the Administration refusing to level with the American people about the situation there.

- Alberto Melloni

Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

- Alexander Nikonov

The President`s call for more math and science students is not being heeded by his party`s leaders in Congress. They are cutting over $10 billion from student aide while refusing to fully fund No Child Left Behind. Something doesn`t add up.

- Alice Abrams

The price that one pays for refusing to act on the truth as one sees it, is to be led to believe untruth to avoid guilt.

- Allen Rossum

He was so tenacious he defied the distraction of women by refusing to have them in his presence, just as later in life he denied his blindness by calling for more and more candles.

- Alli Macko

It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable or an insolent demand, and up starts a patriot.

- Andre Bishop

We shall not find life by refusing to let go of our precious, protected selves.

- Andre Nel

Love is a sickness full of woes, All remedies refusing; A plant that with most cutting grows, Most barren with best using.

- Andrea Drake

There is no doubt that the great majority of the work called `modern` is the product of degenerates and perverts . . . As owners of a great Van Eyck, if we take a part by refusing to pollute our gallery with this filth we shall render a service to Art.

- Andy Murphy

They wouldn`t finish. What am I going to do, drag them out there? I think they should forfeit for refusing to play Saturday.

- Angell Watts

Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not.

- Avery Neumark

Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best of the choices available. Some people are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise. And some people just act on any whim that enters their heads. I pragmatically turn my whims into principles.

- Bill Watterson

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

- Plato

By refusing to implement the women's contracting program and repeatedly failing to meet required contracting goals, this administration is undermining virtually every existing opportunity for women business owners to break into the the good ol' boy network of federal contracting

- Senator John Kerry