Charlton Heston

“You could think of extraordinary examples to the contrary: The Grapes of Wrath... and even into the 70s.”

“Society mends its wounds. And that's invariably true in all the tragedies, in the comedies as well. And certainly in the histories.”

“It's been quite a ride. I loved every minute of it.”

“What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people.”

“I like portraying heroes of antiquity whose values were grander and more spectacular than those of today.”

“Dirty Harry, for example. Clint Eastwood was not a rogue cop. He was a maverick cop, but he was a good guy.”

“Well, we have certainly produced great art before we did this. In my view, there are any number of areas of government which tax money should not be spent.”

“You cut their money back, for one thing... I go back a long way with the NEA.”

“And their pals vote for their stuff when they're not on the panel, and it just keeps going that way. And they tend to be very fringe artists, so anything before the 20th century is not worth considering. This is out of date.”

“Undeniably the American art form, too. And yet more and more, we see films made that diminish the American experience and example. And sometimes trash it completely.”

“The trouble with movies as a business is that it's an art, and the trouble with movies as art is that it's a business.”

“The big studio era is from the coming of sound until 1950, until I came in... I came in at a crux in film, which was the end of the studio era and the rise of filmmaking.”

“My appearance qualifies me for historic characterizations, going back to the year one.”

“As an artist, I understand that, and I value the creative input of the artist.”

“You can be sure that they'll be showing 'Ben-Hur' somewhere for a long, long time to come.”

“Kids are the most conventional people in the world. It is more important than anything else for them to conform, and I was a kind of oddball. I was driven into being independent. I was very, very unhappy.”

“In recent years, anyone in the government, certainly anyone in the FBI or the CIA, or recently, in again, Clint's film, In the Line of Fire, the main bad guy is the chief advisor to the president.”

“Sometimes life drops blessings in your lap without your lifting a finger. Serendipity, they call it.”

“You can spend a lifetime, and, if you're honest with yourself, never once was your work perfect.”

“Shakespeare is the outstanding example of how that can be done. In all of Shakespeare's plays, no matter what tragic events occur, no matter what rises and falls, we return to stability in the end.”