- In Europe, an actor is an artist. In Hollywood, if he isn't working, he's a bum.
- [when asked about his ethnicity] It doesn't make a difference as long as I'm a person in the world.
- I never get the girl. I wind up with a country instead. They said all I was good for was playing Indians.
- I can't retire. I mean, I started working when I was a year and a half old, and I worked all my life.
- [In the 1980s] I don't see many men today. I see a lot of guys running around on television with small waists, but I don't see many men.
- I never satisfied that kid [referring to himself], but I think he and I have made a deal now. It's like climbing a mountain. I didn't take him up Mount Everest, but I took him up Mount Whitney. And I think that's not bad.
- I have lived in a flurry of images, but I will go out in a freeze frame.
- [on Ingrid Bergman] I reckon there wasn't a man who came within a mile of her who didn't fall in love with her.
- [on Marlon Brando] I admire Marlon's talent, but I don't envy the pain that created it.
- [on Marilyn Monroe] An empty-headed blonde with a fat rear. Oh, Monroe was pretty enough to look at, but there were hundreds of better-looking actresses poking around Hollywood. Even after she hit the big time, with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), I never could see what all the fuss was about.
- [on Zorba the Greek (1964)] Nobody wanted to do this role. Burl Ives and Burt Lancaster turned it down. They said "Who cares about an old man making love to a broken-down old broad?".
- [In 1962] Ten years ago, there wasn't an actor who didn't envy Brando. He was superb. His potential was enormous. But what happened? He went out to Hollywood, and instead of fighting giants, he fought pygmies. He stopped growing. He threw his potential away.
- [on Spencer Tracy] Spencer Tracy's a dangerous actor. You never know what he's going to do. He's one of the few actors you can never steal a scene from. He and Olivier and Jean Gabin.
- When I was just starting in movies, I got a reputation for being a scene stealer. Once I was in a film with a famous star and had to stand behind him in one scene. "Now watch that Quinn," this star told the director, "I don't want him stealing the scene behind my back." The director parked me in a chair and I just sat there. Next day, when we were looking at the rushes, the star said "See, I told you! Look at him!" The director exclaimed: "But he's only sitting there!" "Only," rejoined the star, "Maybe so, but he's thinking!".
- [on Marlon Brando] We forget how he revolutionized acting. Look at the chances he takes - think of all the stars who drift along playing themselves.
- [In 1996] The painter leaves his mark. And I just put in two statues in Rhode Island that I'm working on. And I think that's going to make me last longer than me. I mean, who remembers "Zorba"? Nobody remembers "Zorba". Nobody remembers "Requiem for a Heavyweight".
- One of the reasons I did all the Greeks and Arab parts I did was because I was trying to identify myself as a man of the world. I lived in Greece, in France, Iran and all over the world, Spain, trying to find a niche where I would finally be accepted.
- My mother and father were both young kids fighting in the revolution, and we always lived a Mexican life, even when we moved to Texas. But to be Mexicans with the name of Quinn, that was not a nice thing to do. If your name isn't Gonzalez or Montoya or whatever, they just don't acknowledge you as a Mexican.
- I think I'm lucky. I was born with very little talent but great drive.
- I am of the opinion - and I'm not afraid to say it - that men are slightly lost today. They don't know where in the hell they are with this women's liberation. A man is responsibility. I think that's what I represent: responsibility.
- The size of the actor makes a difference. I'm six feet two and I look at life a lot different from a man who is five feet three or ten.
- The parts dried up as I reached my 60th birthday, loosely coinciding with my growing disinclination to pursue them. Indeed, I could not see the point in playing old men on screen when I rejected the role for myself.
- I held out my arms, in a traditional Greek stance, and shuffled along the sands. Soon Alan Bates picked up on the move ... We were born-again Greeks, joyously celebrating life. We had no idea what we were doing, but it felt right, and good.
- [on "The Brave Bulls" (1951)] The supporting cast was entirely Mexican, and I was thrilled to be in such company. After so many years as the token Latin on the set, I found tremendous security in numbers. For the first time, I belonged.
- It took the faith of 750 million Muslims to restore my faith in myself.
- [on his early film roles] I was the bad guy's bad guy. I rarely made it to the final reel without being dispatched by a gun or a knife or a length of twine, typically administered by a rival hood.
- Some days, I paint like an Indian. Some days, I paint like a Mexican ... I steal from everybody - Picasso, Kandinsky ... I steal, but only from the best.
- Probably it's the Irish in me that makes me speak out. But there are about 800 boys in my profession who have a political ideal and want to express it. How can an actor be real in his work if he hasn't some convictions regarding the problems in the world around him?
- Funny thing, you know, one of my favorite characters in all my films was Zorba the Greek. And somehow, I think I've become more like Zorba ever since I played him.
- Many people remember Jack Barrymore as either a wit or a drunk, but what impressed me was his courage of conviction. He used to tell me that you can only be as right as you dare to be wrong. That you must be willing to take chances to achieve superiority in your craft. He gave me his armor from 'Richard III.' He was like a retiring matador, who gives his sword to the most promising newcomer he knows.
- I love, love, love women.
- I fought early to go beyond the stereotypes and demand Mexicans and Indians be treated with dignity in films. You know, the character in 'The Ox-Bow Incident' was the most influential depiction of a Mexican for its time. He was a young outlaw but a young outlaw who spoke eight languages.
- Those were rough times, right from the beginning. With a name like Quinn, I wasn't totally accepted by the Mexican community in those days, and as a Mexican I wasn't accepted as an American. So as a kid I just decided, well, 'A plague on both your houses. I'll just become a world citizen.' So that's what I did. Acting is my nationality.
- [on his painting style] I'd guess you'd just have to call it Mexican abstract. I don't really think about it. I just do it. I dunno, I was born in a revolutionary era, so maybe that's why I've always been sort of a revolutionary figure.
- I steal from everyone. Picasso did it. Modigliani did it. So did da Vinci. Rufino Tamayo stole from the Mayan civilization. The thing is, a big talent steals; a small talent borrows.
- I have never, never, never talked about my son's death. I've never used the term death in connection with my son. But every night doing the show I had to say, 'He's dead.' At first I cut the line out of the play. The director came to me and said, 'It's wrong. I know how painful it is, but you'll have to do it.' He loved his son very much, this Zorba. He left his family because he couldn't bear being with them after the loss of his son. Zorba and I are very much alike.
- My father, Francesco, had the same problem I did with people making fun of him because of his name. And he joined the revolution to prove that he was a good Mexican. But I must say that I think it was a good thing, if there is such a thing as a good thing, that I wasn't accepted 100 percent by the Mexican people. Because it drove me mad, it drove me absolutely crazy.'
- I live a revolutionary life.
- I believe in karma. One is guided by la duende , a worm inside your stomach that makes you do all sorts of things. This worm, no matter what you do, how you try to change, this duende calls the shots.
- When I die I want to return and claim my six feet of Mexican soil. It's my way of saying 'accept me'. If I go back maybe then they will say, 'He was one of us.'
- I've never accepted discrimination against myself. I've always walked proudly, maybe too much so, never apologizing for being Mexican.
- If I stayed in Hollywood, I'd still be playing Indians. I went on stage, where I had the chance to play many nationalities. I was an English king, a Polish worker in 'Streetcar', taking over the role from Brando.
- I hope I opened the door for ethnic leading men. Many Mexican actors didn't reach out to play other nationalities, other roles, but now they can.
- I'm sorry to say my home country never really accepted me as Mexican. If I had a Mexican name and won two Oscars, I'd be a god to Mexicans everywhere. But I've never been taken up as anyone's hero. They don't know whether to treat me as Mexican or Irish because of my name.
- At that time Hollywood - hell, America - looked down on anybody not blond or blue-eyed as potential enemies. We all had to put up with it. I always said I was Mexican, Indian and Irish. The only Mexican leading man was Gilbert Roland but he told everyone he was Spanish.
- For so many years I defied Mexico, angry for not recognizing me. I had no backing. I'm no longer angry or disappointed. I made my own life out of defiance and I'm proud of it.
- A career in pictures did not look promising. I was either too dark, or too Mexican, or too unusual looking, and the good parts always seemed to go to the actors who fit a more conventional mold.
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