Sterling Hayden Quotes

It seems to me the people in the (Communist) Party not only know what`s going on in the world but they have the guts to determine a course of action.... In Yugoslavia...when the going got rough and it was time to be counted, it was the Communists who stood up and fought.

John Huston: "Sterling is one of the few actors I know who has grown over the years. . . . There is a kingliness about Sterling now."

On acting: "You don`t need talent to star in a motion picture. All you need is some intelligence AND the ability to work freely in front of the lens. Why do I always freeze? I went through the war. I jumped out of bombers. I played kick-the-can with E-boats when all we had was a lousy forty-foot dragger with six machine guns and a top speed of six knots. Yet whenever I get a closeup in a nice warm studio, I curl up and die."

On confessing his Communist ties before Congress: "I don`t think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since the day I did that thing." (and years later:) "It`s the one thing in my life that I`m categorically ashamed of."

There is not enough money in Hollywood to lure me into making another picture with Joan Crawford. And I like money. - Sterling Hayden after filming "Johnny Guitar"

I wonder whether there has ever before been a man who bought a schooner and joined the Communist Party all on the same day.

(on director Bernardo Bertolucci) Bertolucci is not like most directors I`ve worked with; there`s something beautiful, crazy, special about him. He`s funny too. He operates like a writer. No one knows what he`s going to do. Several million dollars are riding on him alone. He has the power, he goes ahead, upsets those who plan schedules, takes his own time, follows his own genius.

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

There`s nothing wrong with being an actor, if that`s what a man wants. But there`s everything wrong with achieving an exalted status simply because one photographs well and is able to handle dialogue."

Hated acting "because, in the final analysis, an actor is only a pawn - brilliant sometimes, rare and talented, capable of bringing pleasure and even inspiration to others, but no less a pawn for that." Hayden`s agent: "This man was born in the wrong century. He should have been a sea captain in the 1800`s."

I did nothing in 1947, for which Paramount paid me $70,000.

I started at the top and worked my way down.

If I had the dough I`d buy up the negative of every film I ever made ... and start one hell of a fire.

To producers at end of each filming: "When you took me, who did you REALLY want for the picture?"

That was first thing I ever did that I could actually stand to watch on screen - the first time I wasn`t acutely mortified. - On The Long Goodbye (1973)

I`m not a member of the Party. I`m not under the discipline or influence of the Party, not that I know of. What`s more, I never was, even when I was a member.

On his fling with Communism: "What did I care for labor? For racial discrimination? For civil liberties and the war between the classes? Oh, I cared in my own fashion. I cared just enough to embrace these things as props, flailing away night after night at semi-drunken parties."

I work when I get broke or when something comes along that has some integrity or guts.

Incredible, really - how I got away with it; parlaying nine years at sea into two decades of posturing.

I don`t think there are many other businesses where you can be paid good money and not know what you`re doing.

On quitting the Communist Party: "I`d rather be wrong on my own than be right on somebody else`s say-so."

John Huston to SH: "The next time somebody says you can`t act, tell them to call Huston."

On his films: "Bastards, most of them, conceived in contempt of life and spewn out onto screens across the world with noxious ballyhoo; saying nothing, contemptuous of the truth, sullen, and lecherous."

(on director Stanley Kubrick) By the time of "Dr. Strangelove" he had become very human -- maybe it was the power that came with successes like "Lolita" -- for he is now very strong. My first day was torture. I was nervous, scared, did 48 takes. I expected Kubrick to explode but instead he was gentle, calmed me, convinced me that the fear in my eyes would help the character.

What confuses me is I ain`t all that unhappy. So why do I drink, I don`t know.

I have yet to invest the first dime because I don`t believe in unearned income. The question is inevitable: `If you don`t believe in taking what you don`t earn, then how could you be reconciled to the astronomical figures (you make)?` I never was. Furthermore, I couldn`t stand the work.