James Cagney Quotes

(about his most famous misquoted line:) I never actually said, `Nnng-you dirty ra-at!` What I actually said was (imitating Cary Grant): `Judy! Judy! Judy!`

Learn your lines, find your mark, look `em in the eye and tell `em the truth.

They need you. Without you, they have an empty screen. So, when you get on there, just do what you think is right and stick with it

There`s not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean everything you say.

Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.

"I`m sick of carrying guns and beating up women." (1931)

(about his most famous misquoted line:) "I never actually said, `Nnng-you dirty ra-at!` What I actually said was (imitating Cary Grant): `Judy! Judy! Judy!`"

What not many people know is that right up to two days before shooting started, I was going to play the good guy, the pal. Edward Woods played it in the end. - On The Public Enemy (1931)

You dirty, double-crossing rat.

If the American family has seemed in danger of disintegration, I believe and hope it will survive, and I think America will return to old values.

I got a part as a chorus girl in a show called Every Sailor and I had fun doing it. Mother didn`t really approve of it, through.

There`s not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean everything you say.

All I try to do is to realise the man I`m playing fully, then put as much into my acting as I know how. To do it, I draw upon all that I`ve ever known, heard, seen or remember.

My father was totally Irish, and so I went to Ireland once. I found it to be very much like New York, for it was a beautiful country, and both the women and men were good-looking.

With me, a career was the simple matter of putting groceries on the table.

You know, the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tried to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer, it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.

I`m sick of carrying guns and beating up women. (1931)

Where I come from, if there`s a buck to be made, you don`t ask questions, you go ahead and make it.

They need you. Without you, they have an empty screen. So, when you get on there, just do what you think is right and stick with it.

Perhaps people, and kids especially, are spoiled today, because all the kids today have cars, it seems. When I was young you were lucky to have a bike.

I hate the word superstar". I have never been able to think in those terms. They are overstatements. You don`t hear them speak of Shakespeare as a superpoet. You don`t hear them call Michelangelo a superpainter. They only apply the word to this mundane market."

The 1920s were essentially the time when I learned the business of performing. It was my initiation into the world of show business.

Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.

My biggest concern is that doing a rough-and-tumble scene I might hurt someone accidentally.

(In the early 1960`s) "In this business you need enthusiasm. I don`t have enthusiasm for acting anymore. Acting is not the beginning and end of everything."

You know, the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tired to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer, it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.