Shirley Knight Quotes

Then if your movie clicks with real audiences, you'll be sucked into some sort of Hollywood orbit. It's a devil of a place where the only religion that really counts is box office.

I wouldn't like to be in movies. Movie people are strange. They live a different life than musicians do.

Everyone has a warped vision of Hollywood and what success in Hollywood is like.

I work with a lot of movie stars.

I don't know one actor that became an actor for healthy reasons.

I woke up one morning to find I was famous. I bought a white Rolls-Royce and drove down Sunset Boulevard, wearing dark specs and a white suit, waving like the Queen Mum.

It's hard not to get a big head in the film industry, there are people on a set paid to cater to your every need, from the minute you arrive until you go home. It's kind of strange, but not unpleasant.

Hollywood is my domestic idyll.

I don't do the whole, 'Put my name on it, make me famous' thing.

I enjoy being a highly overpaid actor.

It's mostly directors whom I get starstruck around.

I'm still ambivalent about Hollywood. I think that's why I made 'Star 80.' To deal with the ambivalence. I really wanted to succeed Gene Kelly, and I thought it was a fair bet.

My existence was never a Francis Ford Coppola existence.

I was a complete unknown when I did 'Karate Kid.' I'd just done a pilot for a TV show called 'Call to Glory.' And I sat down with John Avildsen and brought still pictures from the show. I brought pictures! At that point, I would've been happy to be in a dog-food commercial.

I'm tired of the industry, tired of playing the whole game - the dressing up, the red carpet. I hate talking about myself.

I think a lot of people have a vision of L.A. in which TV executives and movie directors plan their latest productions by the swimming pool.

There is a level of fame that is really unmanageable. But most of the people who experience that level of fame are compensated in other ways. Private villas and chauffeured boats.

My first year and a half in Hollywood, I did three films. Then in 1959, I was in 'Gidget,' 'Imitation of Life' and 'A Summer Place.' After that, I was a star. It was fun.

I'm a big fan of all the Boston guys that are acting - Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Mark Wahlberg - they made a great career out of it, and they found a way to do it and still be cool guys, so that's kind of where I want to be.

Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public …. A man must be his own trumpeter—he must write or dictate paragraphs of praise in the newspapers; he must dress, have a retinue and equipage; he must ostentatiously publish to the world his own writings with his name, make the mob stare and gape, and perpetuate his fame.

If you're going to be a movie star, you should live like one.

The rich and famous expect to get a lot for their story, whether they are writing it themselves or not. It's not that they need the money, of course; it's a question of ego, like catching the biggest fish.

I don't need security detail; I don't need anything special. I just walk around, and I can do that, and that's a real luxury when you're in my industry.

There's a difference between fame and fame for fame's sake.

I think of myself as making independent films within the studio system. Yes, I've made movies with significantly larger budgets, and I've also made movies with smaller budgets.