James Caan Quotes

I have an agent I trust professionally more than anybody else, but with the best intentions he could put me in the shithouse just as fast as somebody who wanted to ruin me.

I`d rather get sloshed than stoned.

Anyone of my generation who tells you he hasn`t "done" Brando (Marlon Brando) is lying.

I loved Funny Lady (1975) for whatever reason. People say they didn`t know I could sing and dance. Well, nobody ever asks me - it`s always "Punch this guy".

I`ll see a beautiful girl walking up to me and I`ll think, "Oh, my God, I can`t believe my good luck". But then she`ll say, "Where`s your son?" or "My mother loves you."

I never rode a bull - I`m not that stupid.

(on recent big-budget Hollywood films) (They) absolutely stink. All those pictures, those big extravaganzas - you can`t remember any characters. Either they had an animal head on them or walked funny . . . If they want me to work, I`ll go, "Sure". Basically, I`m a whore.

Anyone of my generation who tells you he hasn`t `done Brando` is lying.

(on Zabriskie Point (1970)) It was the worst fucking - and I have to curse because there is no other way that I can express myself - picture that I ever saw. I got so angry about it. I was in love with a girl. We went to the movie and it ended the whole affair. He (Michelangelo Antonioni) hired cardboard, the worst actors, and it was a conscious effort - that`s what pissed me off.

My least favorite phrase in the English language is "I don`t care."

I play a guy who believes he`s a king. He`s the most common man in the world; in fact his family, like his suits, are just make-up. It`s about dysfunctional people and dysfunctional relationships.

There`s nothing more boring than actors talking about acting.

I went through some bad times, some very self-destructive stuff, you know, when I was on top. I`d got involved in partying and doing all that and I lost my sister and, basically, I got all screwed up in my head. She was like my best friend and I lost her to leukemia and I was just a mess. I had a lot of money because I`d worked a lot and saved it. I had it in a pension plan and then I lost all my money. My accountant. I just woke up one morning and I didn`t have a dime. We`re talking about tons . . . I mean, a lot of money, and I was flat broke.

A "Godfather Four"? Not by Francis (Francis Ford Coppola), anyway. Who cares? There shouldn`t have been a The Godfather: Part III (1990).

I had great, great times as a Little League coach. People were talking about me quitting acting, and they would say, "What about your creative juices?" Coaching is creative, because you could take a kid who thought he wasn`t any good and, within four minutes, change his mind. And I didn`t have to wait six months for them to put music to it. How good a Little League coach was I? I was a little hyper. One thing I learned was that talent comes from everywhere; it doesn`t have to come just from the ghetto. But in Beverly Hills, because Daddy has a grocery store, the kids lack a lot of try.

(On being voted "Italian of the Year" in New York twice, after his role as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972)): I`m a Jew from the Bronx. I feel guilty about accepting these awards, but they wouldn`t let me turn them down.

I don`t think silicone makes a girl good or bad.

There`s a big difference between wanting to work and having to work. And I had to learn that the hard way. Now money is very important to me, because I ain`t got it.

(about living at the Playboy mansion) Actually, it was for medicinal purposes - I was just getting divorced. This doctor wrote me a prescription to live there because he thought it would help me get over the pain of my divorce. My God, it worked. I got over it pretty quickly.

I think we have to believe in things we don`t see. That`s really important for all of us, whether it`s your religion or Santa Claus, or whatever. That`s pretty much what it`s about.

You`re the only one who`s closing your eyes at night. There`s no one else who can do it for you.

It is that, but really, it`s about how we don`t recognise the little things in life, or appreciate the little things in life like belonging. A sense of belonging is a big thing today.

My kid was a great baseball player. I thought I had it made. Front-row seats at Yankee Stadium. Then he turned sixteen and wanted to be a rapper.

People wonder why first-time directors can make a brilliant picture, then suck on the second one. It`s because they`re a little terrified the first time. So they listen to all the experts around them.

I`ve been lucky. The critics never went out of their way to single me out for doing bad work.

Quite often I`m misunderstood when I say, `It`s not my life, it`s my job.` People think that means I don`t give a shit. Sure, I want to be the best actor in the world. But my life is my family, my son, my friends. I don`t know how anyone can find fault with that. For some reason when you say, `It`s my job` it sounds like `Who gives a shit?` Well, that`s not it at all. What I do quite honestly and seriously and not in any way being humble is not as important as what the garbage collector does. People make actors important. I go to the movies, I stand on line minding my own business and the manager goes, `Mr. Caan, Mr. Caan.` And I say, `No, no, no, I`m OK. I`ll stand on the line.` `Oh, you can`t.` So, finally they take you through the line and the other 40 people go, `Hey, Mr. Bigshot.` And I was just minding my own business, I just wanted to stand there. But other people make it very important that I`m an actor.

You have to be very careful when you let someone win.

I never did anything else. In college I switched majors every two weeks and acting was the only thing that held my interest. The reason I started was to stay away from the meat market. That`s where I was headed -- to be with the guys who lug beef all day long.

You know those actors who say, "I want to be alone" or they`re walking around with their friggin` bodyguards? A bodyguard! I`d never have a bodyguard. I mean, who wants to hurt me? But the point is that they have the bodyguard so that they can say, "Leave me alone!" It`s this revolving door thing. If somebody didn`t recognize them, they`d have a heart attack, the bastards.

What`s the difference between sex and love? I have four wives and five kids. I apparently don`t know the difference.

Showing up every day isn`t enough. There are a lot of guys who show up every day who shouldn`t have showed up at all.

(on being confused with his character from The Godfather (1972)) I`ll bump into a guy in a bar, and he`ll say, "I`m sorry, Sonny!" It`s surreal.

I did this picture last year with Nicole Kidman and Lars von Trier, Dogville (2003), and it`s supposed to be a trilogy, but now that she`s walked away from it, I`m walking from it. He is very anti-American, so screw him. I`m very pro-America. I`m a conservative, basically.

Actors have bodyguards and entourages not because anybody wants to hurt them - who would want to hurt an actor? - but because they want to get recognized. God forbid someone doesn`t recognize them.

If it was up to them, I`d be playing Sonny Corleone my entire life. Usually, if there weren`t eight people dead by page 11, they wouldn`t send me the script. People say, "Gee, you do a lot of mafia movies". I think I`ve done two, out of 60.

I`m here instead of having shoulder surgery. But I`m not sure which is more painful.

It`s a very charming movie about the mob - a real stretch for me.

To get over my divorce, I got a prescription to live at the Playboy Mansion for a while.

(His advice to younger actors) The main pearl of wisdom I give these young kids is that you shouldn`t make your career your whole life. No matter what heights you achieve, even if you`re Brad Pitt, the slide is coming, sure as death and taxes. So if you put everything into that one basket - acting - you`ll wind up hurting yourself, either with drugs or any other self-destructive thing you can think of.

(on actors taking themselves too seriously) The truth is . . . myself, De Niro (Robert De Niro), Pacino (Al Pacino), Hoffman (Dustin Hoffman), we were arrogant, pompous asses.

There are a lot of guys in Hollywood who clap you on the back just a little too hard.

I always thought of myself as some sort of athlete until I started playing golf a couple years ago.

Will is extremely funny. The tights, though, they were a little vulgar. I just looked at the tights and there`s nothing funny about them!

One night I went over to get some dope from some Hollywood tough guy. After I left, my son Scott, who was only fifteen, went over with a baseball bat to kill him. I was laughing out of one eye and crying out of the other. I thought, Who am I kidding?

(on fans confusing him with his characters) Look, you only pray when you start in this business that you get to the point where people recognize you or quote you. I mean, I`ve got a lot of people who are like, "Hey, your ankle OK?" from Misery (1990). I get that a lot. It`s harmless. Or they`ll say, "Hey, don`t go through that toll booth again" or "Have the right change". That`s great! First of all, it means that they remember the picture. There`s nothing not to like about it . . . No, I hope they never stop.

My acting technique is to look up at God just before the camera rolls and say, `Give me a break.`

Some guys say beauty is only skin deep. But when you walk into a party, you don`t see somebody`s brain. The initial contact has to be the sniffing.