David Carradine Quotes

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.

There`s an alternative. There`s always a third way, and it`s not a combination of the other two ways. It`s a different way.

(on his late friend and one-time co-star, Brandon Lee) He was always giving 110%, and it produced a light in the eyes, which is what you look for in movies.

Every day, at least six people will come up to me and say, "Your show ("Kung Fu" (1972)) changed my life".

(reflecting on his lengthy acting career) It`s always seemed to me like a mission. A holy one, like the Blues Brothers. It`s a marathon. You can`t quit; even coming in dead last has honor. Quitting doesn`t. Look, I had absolute faith in my future when I was starving in New York and no one believed in me besides me and my girlfriend. I`d be stupid to lose that faith after I`ve become a fucking icon. Oh, yes. And I love the work.

The success of the `86 movie with Brandon Lee demanded some kind of continuation. Plus, I had always contemplated a modern version.

I don`t need to convince anybody that I know kung fu, but maybe somebody needs to know that I really can act, without doing a Chinese accent or a funny walk.

Why would you be afraid of death? It would be an inconvenience. I have a lot of undone things and it`s bound to get in the way. But, no, it doesn`t scare me at all.

`Born to play? Hmmm. Probably Romeo... or Hamlet, I guess. Also, I`d be a great Alexander the Great.

Because you know how you say I`ve got to really get down and really do some training and then of course, you never do or you do it for a couple of weeks and slough it back off again but I`m being forced to do something that I really want to do and I loved it.

I remember when I did the pilot, and I though no network is going to want to do this. How could that happen? A half Chinese guy walking the old west that doesn`t fire one gun and never gets on a horse?

Well I would never say to anybody that Warren Beatty got fired, but uh, I think he and Quentin fell out of love, and I think Warren told Quentin to hire me for the film.

You`ve got to be so hip to be into these things, and Quentin is that hip. Nobody I`ve ever worked with has been that hip to so much of that stuff.

Quentin is very organic; there was no way that he was going to put someone else`s hand in there and anyway, my hands are kind of famous. It seemed right.

But, Tarantino has seen all of my movies. He`s seen my good stuff, he`s seen my bad stuff, he`s seen the ones I directed, he`s read my autobiography. There`s an awful lot of things he knows about me, all of which I think had something to do with his casting.

Tarantino is the coolest damn guy; he`s just so much fun to work with. He might be the best director I`ve ever worked with. He just seems to know how to do it and he knows how to make you feel good about it. He`s having so much fun you start having fun. You can`t help it.

I`ve worked with a lot of real heavy hitters, and Quentin is maybe heads and shoulders, at least a forehead, above just about anybody I`ve ever worked with.

(On his late friend and one-time co-star, fellow actor Brandon Lee) "He was always giving 110%, and it produced a light in the eyes, which is what you look for in movies."

I think there`s also something that Quentin wants to tell us - they are comic book characters, the people in Kill Bill, but that they are sort of superheroes, or super villains, or super something. They are beyond the problems of humanity, beyond the day-to-day stuff.

It turned out that this stuff that the Chinese guys do is not really kung fu. It`s very different and I did need to learn how to do that.

In the second installment, I pretty much dominate the show. Somehow or another, though, I manage to apparently dominate the first show pretty well with just my voice and my hands and a shot of my boots kicking cartridges out of the way.

I was involved in a web cartoon of Kung Fu with WB a few years back.

I like Bill a lot. As Bill is presented, I mean you don`t ever see Bill blow her head off? You know? And I think what Quentin has done is he created a monster.

(reflecting on his lengthy acting career) "It`s always seemed to me like a mission. A holy one, like the Blues Brothers. It`s a marathon. You can`t quit, even coming in dead last has honor. Quitting doesn`t. Look, I had absolute faith in my future when I was starving in New York and no one believed in me besides me and my girlfriend. I`d be stupid to lose that faith after I`ve become a fucking icon. Oh, yes. And I love the work."

Most actors spend a lot of time training themselves to be an actor. And I kind of didn`t do that. I just started doin` it in front of an audience and had to deliver.

It was pretty extensive - we worked out 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, which I think is more than anybody in the Olympics. I thought well I don`t need this, the girls need it, but it was a gift.

Quentin wanted to create this special world in which everybody walks around with a samurai sword, extras in the airport, a special little place in the airplane to stick your samurai sword.

Yes, I always enjoy working on cartoons.

Quentin and I were constantly finding something new that we had in common and comic books were one of them. I think we were talking about comic books much earlier in our relationship, before I had the part.

I`m not regretful about dropping acid, but I could have stopped it a little sooner.

You know, I`ve never actually really believed that death is inevitable. I just think it`s a rumor.

My big fight is not in the movie and I don`t understand that decision but I know he`s right about it, whatever it is. Quentin did not hire me because I`m a kung fu expert; he hired me because he liked to listen to me talk.