Burt Reynolds

“People don't understand the analogy of football and acting, but there's a great deal of it that's the same. You get dressed in the room, and you think you've got it all prepared, and later on in the game you wish you had put on more pads 'cause they're just kicking the hell out of you. God almighty, I've been beat up by the best.”

“I haven't been somebody who's been smart about his money. There are a couple of actors who are quite brilliant with the way they've handled their money. But they're not very good actors.”

“The moment you grab someone by the lapels, you're lost.”

“I've always gotten along well with Texans. You've got to.”

“John Boorman was the best director I've ever had.”

“Paul Newman is the personification of cool.”

“You can only hold your stomach in for so many years.”

“I realized very quickly that the public has a perfect right to tell you what they want to see.”

“When you crash and burn, you have to pick yourself up and go on and hope to make up for it.”

“My movies were the kind they show in prisons and airplanes, because nobody can leave.”

“I'm going to retire hopefully like Cary Grant did. I'll be on stage telling a story, everyone's going to applaud and laugh, and then I'll drop like a rock.”

“I can sing as well as Fred Astaire can act.”

“I'm proud of 'Deliverance' because it was a very dangerous film to make, and they all said it couldn't be done, and we did it. And Jon Voight and I are now like brothers.”

“I thought 'Deliverance' was a very good film. But it didn't have the success financially that 'Smokey and the Bandit' did, although that film made more money than 'Star Wars' in the first week.”

“I hate prejudice of any kind, whether it be color or sexual preference.”

“I felt good when I did a stunt, and if it was really dangerous - like if I got out on a horse or a bull that was rank, or jumped out of this building on a bag - I felt great.”

“Jay Leno is wonderful and a good friend, but it will always be the Carson show to a lot of people.”

“I sometimes will be very shut off from everybody. I can be very pettish and sometimes not available when you need me. At those times, I'm very selfish and worrying about my own problems.”

“It's always possible to spend more money.”

“If I hadn't been an actor, I would have been a coach, and I would have been a good one. All teaching is is communicating.”