James Coburn Quotes

I think people in Montreal smoke a lot, and I used to smoke when I was 17-18, and just picked it up when I was playing juniors. But I think I stopped when I was 22, which was a big decision in my life.

When I was twelve or thirteen, if you liked something that was outside of your friend group genre, you had to rationalize and explain it in some way. It's totally irrelevant, I think, now. I don't think anybody cares. Not young people, at least. Maybe journalists.

Mommy smoked but she didn't want us to. She saw smoke coming out of the barn one time, so we got whipped.

It was not hip for people to like us, because their little sister liked us.

My doctor asked me if I smoked, and I said only when I'm working, golfing, or drinking. Then I realized the only time I don't smoke is when I'm home. I didn't even realize I'd become a smoker.

If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.

The only behaviour that is truly common is to avoid doing something because you think others might consider it common.

In high school, it was all about popularity, being with the boyfriend and all the girls thinking he's cute.

My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication - it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness - it is all that I have - and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.

I do smoke in real life. A lot. We're all smoking right now in fact.

I've never been cool - and I don't care.

My first three years of high school, I wasn't that cool.

It's amazing to me that young people will still pick up a cigarette.

Look at any black-and-white movie; everybody is smoking.

Now that I'm gone, I tell you, don't smoke.

I just felt being part of my peer group so strongly. I was immersed in teen culture, but not taken in by it.

I didn't want to be a hero to kids; I didn't think I had that. I just wanted to be popular.

I don't need to hang out in a posse and try to act cool.

The more you pander to what is, presumably, the taste of young people, the more you corrupt.

If you are suffering from your intemperance in eating or in drinking, we that are around you, or associated with you, are affected by your infirmities. We have to suffer on account of the course you pursue, which is wrong. If it has an influence to lessen your powers of mind or body, we are affected by it.

I won't allow magazines in the house. When I was younger, I wanted to have my hair cut like so-and-so in the class above me at school, not somebody in a magazine. You see young girls trying to dress like so-and-so because they've seen lots of pictures of them.

I made fun of myself before everybody else could, so I always got the comic crowns: Freshman Fink, Sophomore Fairy, Junior Birdman. I got all three of them!

I smoke as much as I want and chew tobacco a good deal of the time. I don't pay any attention to the rules for keeping in physical condition. I think they are a lot of bunk. The less you worry about the effect of tea and coffee on the lining of your stomach, the longer you will live, and the happier you will be.

Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke! Whatever you do, just don't smoke!

My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and the intervals between them.