George Clooney famous quotes

At some point in our lifetime, gay marriage won't be an issue, and everyone who stood against this civil right will look as outdated as George Wallace standing on the school steps keeping James Hood from entering the University of Alabama because he was black.
-- George Clooney

#School #Gay #Issues

I grew up at a time where I think most people had a social and political conscience. Some of the biggest changes in our country's political history happened at the time I was growing up, so I was raised to be a part of those things and to participate and I will continue to do that as much as I can.
-- George Clooney

#Country #Growing Up #Thinking

Peace is a fulltime job. It's protecting civilians, overseeing elections, and disarming ex-combatants. Peace, like war, must be waged.
-- George Clooney

#Jobs #War #Election

I don't think that Hollywood will have much to do with changing politics. Hollywood usually reflects things.
-- George Clooney

#Thinking #Hollywood

It is astonishing that gay and lesbian Americans are still treated as second-class citizens. I am confident that, very soon, the laws of this nation will reflect the basic truth that gay and lesbian people - like all human beings - are born equal in dignity and rights.
-- George Clooney

#Gay #Law #Class

What I try to do is make sure that the directors I'm working with are on the same page and want to do the same kind of films. You can really protect yourself as an actor if you work with really good people. It can hide a lot of flaws along the way.
-- George Clooney

#People #Trying #Directors

The truth of the matter is the real story are the people who rise above all of this incredible cruelty. Otherwise that cruelty wins.
-- George Clooney

#Real #Winning #People

We're in a strange state in our world where we sort of have that belief - and I have it too - that if it's written down there's got to be some truth in it. We haven't quite got to the spot where you go: "Well, it doesn't necessarily mean it's true." It could actually be completely made up and made to look very nice. So, we have to get to the point where scandal and those kinds of things are less and less important because otherwise we won't have anyone willing to run as politicians.
-- George Clooney

#Running #Nice #Mean

I don't believe in happy endings, but I do believe in happy travels, because ultimately, you die at a very young age, or you live long enough to watch your friends die. It's a mean thing, life.
-- George Clooney

#Inspirational #Birthday #Travel

Growing up during the Cold War period, I always found that, although we always thought that the world would end in some sort of nuclear holocaust, at some point, everybody was pretty hopeful.
-- George Clooney

#Growing Up #War #Hopeful

Directing is really exciting. In the end, it's more fun to be the painter than the paint.
-- George Clooney

#Fun #Paint #Ends

It is a question in that case of breaking up one piece of art, and whether that piece of art can be as best as possible put back together. So it's an argument to say, maybe that's one of those instances, like the bust of Nefertiti, I think that should be given back [Egyptian piece currently in Neues Museum in Berlin]. It's one of those pieces you look at and think that would probably be the right thing to do.
-- George Clooney

#Art #Thinking #Museums

The funniest thing is that all the things every director goes through, I thought I could shortcut, but there was no getting around those issues.
-- George Clooney

#Issues #Directors #Shortcuts

When you see Hitler burning paintings by Salvador Dali and Picasso he's telling you that this time period and these men and this culture didn't exist, and I've seen that happen in other countries, Sudan for instance, it's not enough to kill them you have to destroy all of their markings that they left that was their history.
-- George Clooney

#Country #Men #Culture

I know love at first sight can work. It happened to my parents.
-- George Clooney

#Inspirational #Sight #Parent

What I learned is that I should probably read a screenplay every once in a while before I said 'yes'. You could make bad film out of a good script, but you're never going to make a good film out of a bad script.
-- George Clooney

#Scripts #Film #Should

I was in a bar and I said to a friend, 'You know, we've become those 40-year-old guys we used to look at and say, 'Isn't it sad?'
-- George Clooney

#Years #Guy #Bars

There are people who like to work in chaos, and some people work better under that, and create that sort of chaos, but that makes a set not necessarily very fun. I like to work on sets that don't have that.
-- George Clooney

#Fun #People #Chaos

Failures are infinitely more instructive than successes.
-- George Clooney

I don't remember who wins awards [Oscars]. I've won a few but what I really remember are movies. I love films, so I'm not concerned about speculation about winning things because I really enjoy being in films that last longer than an opening weekend. That's my goal in life.
-- George Clooney

#Weekend #Winning #Awards

Life’s better with company.  Everybody needs a co-pilot.
-- George Clooney

#Needs #Pilots #Company

Is Art worth dying for? Well I don't know a single inanimate object that's worth dying for.
-- George Clooney

#Art #Dying #Inanimate Objects

You get better as an actor over time if you're growing. Like singers.
-- George Clooney

#Get Better #Actors #Growing

I go on YouTube when somebody says to look something up.
-- George Clooney

#Looks #Goes On #Youtube

As you get older and ease your way into being a character actor you have to be comfortable with where you are in life and career, and I'm very comfortable with what I'm doing - working on projects I'm proud of.
-- George Clooney

#Character #Careers #Actors

I think you should automatically donate your organs because that would turn the balance of organ donation in a huge way. I would donate whatever anybody would take, and I'd probably do the cremation bit.
-- George Clooney

#Thinking #Balance #Way

There are some scenes that you have to lose in order to win something at the end. A good director will keep pointing you that way, but it is also your job as an actor to understand that there are scenes that you do, particularly when you are the lead, where other people get to come in and steal and you have to let them. I understand that but a good director always reminds you where those moments are.
-- George Clooney

#Jobs #Winning #Order

If people see me having dinner with a beautiful woman, they immediately believe that I'm having a love affair with her. Of course that's rubbish. I'm not a playboy!
-- George Clooney

#Beautiful #Believe #People

I'm interested in making films that ask questions and don't particularly provide answers.
-- George Clooney

#Answers #Film

If you don't drink coffee, I am suspicious of your character and will not invite you to my Italian lake home.
-- George Clooney

#Coffee #Home #Character

In the United States 95% of the people who win elections have the most money. That's it. So, money is a big part of elections. But that happens all the time.
-- George Clooney

#Winning #People #United States

I enjoy going on motorcycle trips and stopping in small towns and enjoying drinks with the locals.
-- George Clooney

#Motorcycle #Stopping #Towns

It's very hard when the product your selling to an entire country is yourself and you're just selling the hell out of it all the time. But politicians have a tremendous amount of ego to be able to do it.
-- George Clooney

#Country #Ego #Able

I am the least qualified person to comment on anyone playing the role of Batman since I so terribly destroyed the part,
-- George Clooney

#Roles #Comment #Qualified

I find politics in almost every country I go to be incredibly different and incredibly similar and I'm never surprised by anything.
-- George Clooney

#Country #Different

I'm a Method actor. I spent years training for the drinking and carousing I had to do in this film.
-- George Clooney

#Drinking #Years #Training

Acting is one element in a film. Directing is sort of the painter using all of those elements - sound and music and camera and putting it all together. And that can be fun and exciting. If you fail, it's incredibly upsetting - much more upsetting than when you're an actor. But when you succeed it's incredibly, incredibly exciting, so I like the risk of it all.
-- George Clooney

#Fun #Upset #Risk

There is a strange pecking order among actors. Theatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn't have anybody to look down on.
-- George Clooney

#Reality #Order #Thank God

As a director, I do very few takes, because I feel like you hire the right actor and they'll do the job right. And the directors that I've worked with and had the best luck with - Jason and [ Steven] Soderbergh and the Coen brothers - all have been that kind of director.
-- George Clooney

#Brother #Jobs #Luck

Peace is not just a colored ribbon. It's more than a wristband or a t-shirt. It's not just a donation or a 5 K race. It's not just a folk song, or a white dove. And peace is certainly more than a celebrity endorsement. Peace is a fulltime job. It's protecting civilians, overseeing elections, and disarming ex-combatants. The UN has over 100,000 Peacekeepers on the ground, in places others can't or won't go, doing things others can't or won't do. Peace, like war, must be waged.
-- George Clooney

#Song #Peace #Jobs

When you start out as an actor, you read a script thinking of it at its best. But that's not usually the case in general, and usually what you have to do is you have to read a script and think of it at its worst. You read it going, "OK, how bad could this be?" first and foremost. You cannot make a good film out of a bad script. You can make a bad film out of a good script, but you can't make a good film out of a bad script.
-- George Clooney

#Thinking #Actors #Scripts

I find that as you get older, you start to simplify things in general.
-- George Clooney

#Simplify

As time goes on and you become more comfortable in your career path, and things are starting to make sense, and it's not just about work, you find that you're able to focus on other things and other people.
-- George Clooney

#Careers #People #Focus

I had to stop going to auditions thinking, 'Oh, I hope they like me.' I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem.
-- George Clooney

#Thinking #Answers #Auditions

Any topical subject, if it's Hollywood, will be a couple of years later because you've got to write it, produce it and distribute it, so automatically you're never going to be right on the cutting edge of stories.
-- George Clooney

#Couple #Writing #Cutting

The only failure is not to try.
-- George Clooney

#Inspiring #Perseverance #Failure

I'm the son of a newsman, I grew up around news, so I can understand the issue, which is that papers are losing subscribers and they're getting less and less outlets... it's a tricky thing. You're going to have to sell papers. The problem is, there's so little reporting anymore.
-- George Clooney

#Son #Issues #News

I don't like to share my personal life... it wouldn't be personal if I shared it.
-- George Clooney

#Share #Personal Life

I didn't enjoy working with Bill [Murray]. We fought a lot... but I've let go of some of the anger and we seem to get along fine now.
-- George Clooney

#Letting Go #Bills #Fine

On Christmas morning, before we could open our Christmas presents, we would go to this stranger's home and bring them presents. I remember helping clean the house up and putting up a tree. My father believed that you have a responsibility to look after everyone else.
-- George Clooney

#Morning #Father #Home

It's not ideal to have three films coming out at once
-- George Clooney

#Three #Film #Coming Out

Both of my grandparents died of lung cancer. So I got quite a lesson in the payback later in life of smoking, and if you keep it up how bad it can be.
-- George Clooney

#Cancer #Grandparent #Smoking

I've always been an optimist.
-- George Clooney

#Optimist

[On charity] I try to pick subjects that I can learn about and then focus on and then do as much as I can. If you have a tremendous amount of heat from the spotlight, then you're able to shine a little bit more of your light in a different direction. It's just deflecting. My dad calls it a celebrity credit card that you can cash in. I think if you're in this position you should do it.
-- George Clooney

#Dad #Thinking #Light

We're always going to be a society that's going to slow down and look at the wreck on the side if the road if there is one. We're always going to do that because it's still fascinating and it's human nature.
-- George Clooney

#Looks #Wrecks #Down And

I enjoy directing. I don't know whether it's improving or not, but it's certainly evolving in different directions.
-- George Clooney

#Different #Enjoy #Evolve

The truth is my development I hope is the same way as everything, which is, I succeed some, I fail some, and I keep slugging away at it. I really enjoy it. It's fun.
-- George Clooney

#Fun #Development #Way

The timing for directing is usually because it takes that long to develop a piece and then do pre-production and then post-production. It takes at least a couple of years. I prefer directing to doing other things. Directing and writing seem to be infinitely more creative
-- George Clooney

#Couple #Writing #Years

Getting older is not something that you're not much concerned with.
-- George Clooney

#Getting Older #Concerned #Getting Old

It's hard to find actors that don't feel contemporary when you put them in a period piece.
-- George Clooney

#Actors #Pieces #Periods

I'm not quite sure what the santicity of marriage is.
-- George Clooney

If you're going to do a romantic comedy it was about housing it in something that we haven't seen before.
-- George Clooney

#Comedy #Housing

I'm always sort of optimistic about how good we are, as a country, at fixing ourselves.
-- George Clooney

#Country #Optimistic #Fixing

What did Bush do on 9/11? He ran away and hid. Even Reagan knew more about leadership than that, and he was as bad a symbol of America as I can think of, off-hand. But at least he's been in enough cowboy movies to know he had to come out and stand on top of the rubble and be seen shaking his fist or something.
-- George Clooney

#Cowboy #Thinking #Hands

I think it's the most responsible thing you can do, to have kids. It's not something to be taken lightly. I don't have that gene that people have to replicate.
-- George Clooney

#Taken #Kids #Thinking

The first question is something immediate -- and immediately, we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
-- George Clooney

#Needs #World #Firsts

I probably wouldn't be a good spokesman for an electric car, because I'll still get on a private jet, and one flight on a private jet undoes all my electric-car good deeds.
-- George Clooney

#Car #Deeds #Flight

I think the reason why a lot of young people are such screw ups... is oftentimes they didn't have the luxury I had of forming important relationships and opinions and life experiences before having success.
-- George Clooney

#Thinking #Luxury #People

The script for this film was written 52 years ago by Edward R. Murrow, who taught us many valuable lessons about responsibility and always, always questioned authority, because without it authority often goes unchecked.
-- George Clooney

#Responsibility #Media #Years

I've been my most happy and my most unhappy in relationships. I have family and friends and people I care very much about. I've got a really, really, really good life.
-- George Clooney

#Good Life #People #Family And Friends

When you're young, you tend to believe what people tell you, and that's dangerous. As you get older, you learn that you're never as good or as bad as they say you are. If you understand this, you win.
-- George Clooney

#Confidence #Believe #Winning

In the '60s, when I was growing up, one of the great elements of American culture was the protest song. There were songs about the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the antiwar movement. It wasn't just Bob Dylan, it was everybody at the time.
-- George Clooney

#Song #Growing Up #Rights

I was very lucky to get well known much later in life. You need to have flopped quite a few times to get a sense of how little any of it has to do with you.
-- George Clooney

#Get Well #Lucky #Needs

My father was and is a great journalist. Thirty years ago, I was studying broadcasting in college, and the problem was I wasn't nearly as good as my father. I wasn't as quick or as smart as my old man, and I realized it would be a long time before I was ever going to be, and I decided to do something else.
-- George Clooney

#Father #Smart #College

I've walked with very famous people down red carpets over to the crowd of thousands of people, and you'll reach out to shake their hand and they've got a camera in their hand. And they don't even get their hand out, because they're recording the whole time.
-- George Clooney

#Hands #People #Cameras

I've had some success at writing and directing, and I like it. It's infinitely more creative than just acting, and I have things I want to say and do.
-- George Clooney

#Writing #Creative #Acting

I've been working with Pat Robertson on Africa debt-relief, and we disagree on virtually everything except certain very specific, inalienable rights, and the truth is that morality and patriotism come in all shapes and sizes.
-- George Clooney

#Rights #Relief #Debt

I'm the old-fashioned type who prefers to meet a woman in a more normal setting. I don't like to feel that I'm being hunted down. I've always liked to do my own hunting when it comes to meeting women.
-- George Clooney

#Hunting #Normal #Type

I'm only two years older than Brad Pitt, but I look a lot older, which used to greatly frustrate me. It doesn't anymore. I don't have to fit into that category and get trounced by Tom Cruise and Brad.
-- George Clooney

#Years #Two #Looks

I'd think,'In a relationship, we should never have his kind of fight.' Then, instead of figuring out how to make it work, I looked for a way to get out of it. The truth is, you shouldn't be married if your that kind of person.
-- George Clooney

#Fighting #Thinking #Way

The Patriot Act is certainly a concern; all of those things are dangerous. I think more important than me preaching is that we as a nation have to have the debate. I don't know what the answers are. I just know that if the idea is to say talking about it makes you unpatriotic, I've got to call your bluff on that.
-- George Clooney

#Thinking #Talking #Ideas

Whatever you do, don’t wake up at 65 years old and think about what you should have done with your life.
-- George Clooney

#Thinking #Years #Wake Up

Actors tend to get in their own way, a lot. A lot of times you will do things that will screw up your audition process. I was very bad at auditioning, and I always went in to it saying ‘God I hope I don’t screw this up.’ But at the same time, the directors are saying, ‘God, I hope this person is the savior.’ You have to remember is that the worst thing that could happen is you don’t get the job you don’t already have.
-- George Clooney

#Jobs #Actors #Way

Even the idea of a fart makes me laugh. Saying the word 'fart' makes me laugh. I have iFart on my phone. I have remote whoopee cushions. Farts. To me, there's nothing funnier.
-- George Clooney

#Phones #Ideas #Laughing

If you’re in the room, you've grabbed the brass ring. You are all winners.
-- George Clooney

#Rooms #Winner #Brass

If you’re famous, I don’t—for the life of me—I don’t understand why any famous person would ever be on Twitter. Why on God’s green earth would you be on Twitter? Because first of all, the worst thing you can do is make yourself more available, right?
-- George Clooney

#Earth #Green #Firsts

My father taught me about having principles and how to treat people with respect. My aunt also taught me how to keep a perspective on everything that happens to you. So you learn to be humble and not take your success for granted.
-- George Clooney

#Father #Humble #Aunt

America can't beat anyone anymore.
-- George Clooney

#America #Beats

Directors are the captains of the ship, and it's your job as the lead actor to make sure that the rest of the cast understand that by doing whatever he says.
-- George Clooney

#Jobs #Directors #Actors

Oceans is about glamour. I can't go looking like a slob can I?
-- George Clooney

#Ocean #Glamour

I want to be the George Clooney of music.
-- George Clooney

#Want

You can't beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people revenge-seeking. These days it only matters who's in charge. Right now that's us - for a while at least. Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win. I believe (Rumsfeld) thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can't beat anyone anymore.
-- George Clooney

#Suicide #Revenge #War

I've been in relationships where I've felt terribly alone. Just because you're with someone, it doesn't mean you're happy.
-- George Clooney

#Mean

My biggest fear is doing the same things 10 years from now. That would be a failure. It's something you have to constantly reassess, and asking yourself what you are going to do next makes it a good, long full journey.
-- George Clooney

#Journey #Years #Long

There's a coffin in the back of the church as the wedding is going on ... Look, I'm a romantic. I like marriage...In the movies.
-- George Clooney

#Marriage #Church #Coffins

When you go to Detroit you see a town that is resilient, that's just fighting to win again, and there's an energy to that. Just watching a city really fighting to get back on its feet and watching the inner strength of a city is tremendous.
-- George Clooney

#Fighting #Winning #Cities

You learn from the mistakes you make and from the mistakes other people make. The truth is, you don't learn from success; you learn from failure.
-- George Clooney

#Mistake #People #Truth Is

You have only a short period of time in your life to make your mark, and I'm there now.
-- George Clooney

#Reality #Periods #Mark

In 2003, a lot of us were saying, 'Where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden What does Iraq have to do with 911 Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, 'We were misled.' It makes me want to shout, 'F-- you, you weren't misled.' You were afraid of being called unpatriotic.
-- George Clooney

#Crazy #Lying #Iraq

I'm not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing.
-- George Clooney

#Gay #Being Gay