John Wayne Quotes

Slap some bacon on a biscuit and let's go! We're burnin' daylight! ~ John Wayne

I went to West Texas and started writing a cycle of Americana poems after the space conjured images that, as a child, I only saw on television-John Wayne, cowboys, borderlines. But suddenly, I felt close to these once-foreign imageries and wondered how I'd changed. Each evening brought the darkest skies in the country, and I understood the expansiveness of our inner selves. Ultimately nothing divides us except the worlds and words we allow. ~ Nathalie Handal

.....I'm certain I asked for a cowboy one December past--
For I wanted the excitement of pioneers to last;
I ached to sing with a fiddle, speak with a drawl and twang;
I surely requested John Wayne to be part of my gang.

Of course I dreamed of a cowboy in those Yuletides of yore--
For I wanted that ace, that corral fighter, that scout roar;
I ached for the authentic frontier hero of the West;
I surely requested the sacred battleground's finest.

I did pray Santa'd give me a cowboy some time ago--
For I wanted a legend in denim wrangler for beau;
I ached to be rounded up safely by my saddled knight;
I surely requested I be prospected, mined, settled right...


-----excerpted from the poem 'A Cowboy For Christmas' in the book FROM GUAM TO CROWN CITY CORONADO (THANKS TO HERMANN, MISSOURI): A JOURNEY IN POESY, by Mariecor Ruediger ~ Mariecor Ruediger

Sadly, our culture raises man to be strong and silent. Straight or gay, the pressure is on from the time we're very young to become our culture's John Wayne-style of man.
* The more pain I can take, the more of a man I am.
* Showing feelings is for women.
* The more I can drink, the manlier I am.
* Intimacy is sex; sex is intimacy.
* Only women depend on others.
* A man takes care of himself without help from others.
* No one can hurt you if you're strong.
* I am what I earn.
* It is best to keep your problems to yourself.
* Winning is all that really matters.
Where did this stuff come from? It's everywhere in our society from the movies heroes we love to the politicians we vote for. Our culture demands that man fit in a tightly defined role. ~ Alan Downs

Oddly enough, I've always - I've never actually seen "The Alamo" itself, actually. So I don't really have the association of "Green Leaves of Summer" as being "The Alamo" theme. Oddly enough, I grew up watching kung fu movies. They would use the theme "Green Leaves of Summer" in a lot of needle drops in kung fu movies a lot. So I was actually more familiar with it in a Bruce Li movie than I was actually from the John Wayne film. ~ Quentin Tarantino

I never trust a man that doesn't drink. ~ John Wayne

John Wayne represents more force, more power than anyone else on the screen. ~ Howard Hawks

Fear and desire for pleasure. Aggressiveness comes out of fear, predominantly, and sexuality predominantly out of the other. But they mix in the middle. Anyway, both of these impulses can destroy order, which comes out of both drives, and which is another human need I haven't yet fit into my scheme. So both have to be controlled. But in fact, despite religious commands to the contrary, aggressiveness has never really been condemned. It's been exalted, from the Bible through Homer and Virgil right down to Humbert Hemingway. Have you ever heard of a John Wayne movie being censored? did you ever see them take war books off the bookstands? They leave the genitals off Barbie and Ken, but they manufacture every kind of war toy. Because sex is more threatening to us than aggression. There have been strict rules about sex since the beginning of written rules, and even before, if we can believe myth. I think that's because it's in sex that men feel most vulnerable. In war they can hype themselves up, or they have a weapon. Sex means being literally naked and exposing your feelings. And that's more terrifying to most men than the risk of dying while fighting a bear or a soldier. Look at the rules! You can have sex if you're married, and you have to marry a person of the opposite gender, the same color and religion, an age close to your own, of the right social and economic background, even the right height, for God's sake, or else everybody gets up in arms, they disinherit you or threa ~ Marilyn French

Did I ever tell you my father's last words to me?
'Careful son, I don't think the safety is on'.
Before that. ~ John Wayne

I've never been typed. John Wayne played 'that guy' all the time - mostly because that's all he could do. Gable played Gable parts, and Bob Taylor played Bob Taylor parts, whether he was in armor or a full-dress suit. I resisted that. ~ Robert Preston

When you come to see a picture of mine, I want you to know that I'm not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you won't be disappointed in me. ~ John Wayne

The state of North Carolina, Daisy, and John Wayne walked into a bar, and I shouted, "Duke!" and the bartender threw me out, because he was a Chapel Hill fan, and I was drunk. ~ Jarod Kintz

I asked him a number of questions and I got some very interesting answers. Ken's heroes, according to Christopher, would be people like John Wayne, of course. ~ Stacy Keach

Just one more question, Pilgrim. How far up your ass do you want my boot? ~ John Wayne

GG Allin is an entertainer with a message to a sick society. He makes us look at it for what we really are. The human is just another animal who is able to speak out freely, to express himself clearly. Make no mistake about it, behind what he does is a brain. ~ John Wayne Gacy

It rankles me when somebody tries to force somebody to do something. ~ John Wayne

As he wrapped her in white terrycloth, Kyle eyed his lingering hardness. "Again?"
Cole turned his bride to hug her from behind, nuzzling her neck. "I'll have you in my bed next," he said. "I'm going to make love to you so thoroughly that, tomorrow? You'll walk like John Wayne."
Her laughter sounded so free. ~ Debra Anastasia

Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be. ~ John Wayne

I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that's the way I am. ~ John Wayne

If John Wayne were alive, he'd be rolling over in his grave! ~ Ernest Borgnine

We're burnin' daylight. ~ John Wayne

Oh, I loved John Wayne. He was just so charming and easy to work with. ~ Judy Geeson

Most men hate to shop. That's why the men's department is usually on the first floor of a department store, two inches from the door. ~ John Wayne

The mythic American character is made up of the virtues of fairness, self-reliance, toughness, and honesty. Those virtues are generally stuffed into a six-foot-tall, dark-haired, can-do kind of guy who is at once a family man, attractive to strange women, carefree, stable, realistic, and whimsical. in the lore of America, that man lives on the Great Plains. he's from Texas, Dodge City, Cheyenne, the Dakotas, or somewhere in Montana. In fact, the seedbed of this American character, from the days of de Tocqueville through Andrew Jackson, Wyattt Earp, Pony Express riders, pioneers, and cowboys to modern caricatures played by actors such as Tom Mix, Gary Cooper, and John Wayne has aways been the frontier. It's a place with plenty of room to roam, great sunsets, clear lines between right and wrong, and lots of horses. It's also a place that does not exist and never has. The truth is that there has never been much fairness out here. ~ Dan O'Brien

But don't get me wrong. As far as a man and a woman is concerned, I'm awfully happy there's a thing called sex. It's an extra something God gave us. I see no reason why it shouldn't be in pictures. Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful. ~ John Wayne

Communism is quite obviously still a threat. Yes, they are human beings, with a right to their point of view ... ~ John Wayne

My father was a sort of John Wayne Texan who'd worked as a cowboy when he was young. He'd participated in rattlesnake round-ups and swum with copperheads. ~ Edmund White

When I was a sophomore at USC, I was a socialist, pretty much to the left. But not when I left the university. I quickly got wise. I'd read about what had happened to Russia in 1917 when the Communists took over. ~ John Wayne

See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn't dead, Elvis isn't dead. Otherwise you don't have a hero. You can't kill a hero. That's why I never let him get older. ~ Mickey Spillane

Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful. ~ John Wayne

Yes that's true but the house wasn't a home. Like what you..you know, what you go to a home to each night. The Summerdale house is rented to PDM contractors. There was 12 keys out to it. But that was never allowed to come out at the trial..as it would put doubt in the states theory. They didn't want anybody to know that people had keys to the house. Plus the fact that I wasn't always at the house, so others used it just as much ... and again that wasn't brought out at the trial as it didn't fit with the states theory of the case that I committed all the crime. ~ John Wayne Gacy

Why Hollywood has killed so many movie stars with cigarette smoking, with the romanticization of it from John Wayne to Humphrey Bogart, all those people had cancer, died of it, and sold cigarettes their whole career. ~ Chris Hayes

Hassan and I were stunned. Dazed. John Wayne didn't really speak Farsi ~ Khaled Hosseini

John Wayne was a consummate gentleman. Bigger than life. ~ Jennifer O'Neill

I can't go to bed with John Wayne, so I do the next best thing: I go to bed with my girlfriend, who once met the great man. That's how much I love westerns. ~ Clive Sinclair

My folks always let me go to the movies every Saturday. We were really motion-picture goers. ~ John Wayne

My name is John Wayne. When I was a kid I had ring worm. Hell, I was more worm than boy for a couple of years. ~ John Wayne

John Wayne treated me fine, but that macho stuff turns me off. It's not real. ~ Tab Hunter

All my heroes, I guess, like John Wayne and all those guys, they drank and they smoked and did all the manly things. It was expected of you. And now abstinence in all kinds of forms is a part of living. It's a pretty - I don't smoke anymore, I quit that 42 years ago ~ Larry Hagman

You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you'll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we'll have a lot more of them. And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Of all the jaw-droppingly beautiful women who've become genuine movie stars, none has had a longer film career (62 years), has been filmed in Technicolor more often (34 times), has had a more versatile group of leading men (from John Wayne to John Candy) or has spent more time held captive on a pirate ship than our TCM Star of the Month for July, the magnificent red-headed Maureen O'Hara. ~ Robert Osborne

A man deserves a second chance, but keep an eye on him. ~ John Wayne

The efficacy of fashion turns on the self's perception of itself either as a nought or at least as lacking something, and its perception or misperception of the splendid wholeness of public figures as evidenced by even the most carelessly worn badges of their substantiality - when in truth the selves of Jackie Onassis and Wallis Simpson and John Wayne are probably more insubstantial than most. Question: ~ Walker Percy

I believe humor nullifies violence. ~ John Wayne

Two of the great leaders of the past - Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass - had White fathers - who deserted them. Now Margo Jefferson, who is hard on me and the fellas, wrote in the Times that she has nocturnal, erotic fantasies about John Wayne. What's up with these feminists? Do you see these double standards these feminists have? They dream about John Wayne, but they're hard on us [Black men]. ~ Ishmael Reed

His Charles Bronson-like demeanour together with his Clint Eastwood stare and his John Wayne swagger, created from a diet of westerns and Eighties TV mixed with a lifetime of planning, organising, managing, and leading, were now gelled together with the battle-hardened soldier he had become. ~ Connor Fitzgerald

Two of my biggest heroes were my father and John Wayne. ~ Johnny Ramone

Life's hard. It's even harder when you're stupid. ~ John Wayne

Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid. ~ John Wayne

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. ~ John Wayne

America is the land of freedom and that's the way I enjoy living. ~ John Wayne

The reason there are so many stupid people is because it's illegal to kill them. ~ John Wayne

I haven't had a fight since I was eleven. I only won that because she had an asthma attack. ~ John Wayne

This life's hard, but it's harder if you're stupid. ~ George V. Higgins

I'm like John Wayne. I only play good guys. Describing his cameo role on a TV series. ~ Oliver North

A mangled corpse in the middle of a blood-drenched floor. Berserk FBI field agents drawing guns and shooting to kill. A little kung fu, a little John Wayne, and a few casual threats.
So far, I thought, my nerves jangling, just one more night on the job. ~ Jim Butcher

After my father had seen me in five or six things, he said, Son, your mother and I really enjoyed your recent film, and I must say that you're a lot like John Wayne. And I said, How so? And he said, Well, you're exactly the same in all your roles. Now, as a modern American actor, that's not what you want to hear. But for a guy who watched John Wayne movies and grew up in Iowa, it's a sterling compliment. ~ Dermot Mulroney

All the screen cowboys behaved like real gentlemen. They didn't drink, they didn't smoke. When they knocked the bad guy down, they always stood with their fists up, waiting for the heavy to get back on his feet. I decided I was going to drag the bad guy to his feet and keep hitting him. ~ John Wayne

John Wayne was one of the greatest ambassadors for the United States that ever lived. ~ Maureen O'Hara

My favorite actors when I was a kid were in their '60s. Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne. ~ Joseph Bologna

The dead won't bother you, it's the living you have to worry about. ~ John Wayne Gacy

In all, I was in 16 movies, including 'The Bishop's Wife' with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven; I was in 'Rio Grande' with John Wayne, 'Albuquerque' with Randall Scott, 'Blue Skies' with Bing Crosby and 'Hans Christian Anderson' with Danny Kaye. ~ Karolyn Grimes

Male menopause is a lot more fun than female menopause. With female menopause you gain weight and get hot flashes. Male menopause ? you get to date young girls and drive motorcycles. ~ John Wayne

I drink for comradeship, and when I drink for comradeship, I don't bother to keep count. ~ John Wayne

Nothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets. ~ John Wayne

John Wayne was the meanest, nastiest man with the worst attitude that I ever worked with. ~ Jill Haworth

You're not swimming in glory until you find someone to swim with you. Glory isn't glory if you don't have someone to share it with. It's just pride and bullshit on your own.
Unbelievable. Will Jones wasn't only one badass cowboy; he pretty much could have been the love child of John Wayne and Yoda. ~ Nicole Williams

Fear is just one of the many words I don't know the meaning of. ~ John Wayne

I would like to be remembered, well ... the Mexicans have a phrase, "Feo fuerte y formal". Which means he was ugly, strong and had dignity. ~ John Wayne

I was ashamed to admit I was hipped to the idea of acting. That's why I started in with the props. ~ John Wayne

I remember playing John Wayne Gacy, serial killer, very sick, neurotic, screwed-up guy. You know what? There's a part of me there, too, and you explore that. ~ Brian Dennehy

All battles are fought by scared men who'd rather be some place else. ~ John Wayne

You don't have to fight to be brave. Millions of good, fine, decent folks show more bravery than heavyweight champs just by getting out of bed every morning, going out to do a good day's work and living the best life they know how against the law of odds. ~ John Wayne

A man's got to do what a man's got to do. ~ John Wayne

I grew up loving the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood westerns. ~ Ben Mendelsohn

I loved cowboy movies when I was a kid. When I was five years old, I was already wearing a cowboy hat and suit. When I grew up, I knew John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas and so on. ~ Jackie Chan

The Duke [John Wayne] was a massive figure. He looked like a heavy piece of hauled lumber, and it didn't seem like any man could stand shoulder to shoulder with him. ~ Bob Dylan

Other people, so I have read, treasure memorable moments in their lives: the time one climbed the Parthenon at sunrise, the summer night one met a lonely girl in Central Park and achieved with her a sweet and natural relationship, as they say in books. I too once met a girl in Central Park, but it is not much to remember. What I remember is the time John Wayne killed three men with a carbine as he was falling to the dusty street in Stagecoach, and the time the kitten found Orson Welles in the doorway in The Third Man. ~ Walker Percy

The idea that I'm a homosexual thrill killer, that I stroll down the streets and stalk young boys and slaughter them ... Hell, if you could see my schedule, my work schedule, you knew damn well that I was never out there. ~ John Wayne Gacy

Thanking people is dangerous business. A name always slips your mind. ~ John Wayne

I play John Wayne in every part regardless of the character, and I've been doing okay, haven't I? ~ John Wayne

A man is no better than he has to be. ~ John Wayne

A clown can get away with murder. ~ John Wayne Gacy

That's what the movies do. They don't entertain us, they don't send the message: 'We care.' They give us lines to say, they assign us parts: John Wayne, Theda Bara, Shirley Temple, take your pick. ~ Connie Willis

I never killed a man I didn't have to. ~ John Wayne

I want to play a real man in all my films, and I define manhood simply:
men should be tough, fair, and courageous, never petty,
never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either. ~ John Wayne

I never have really become accustomed to the 'John.' Nobody ever really calls me John ... I've always been Duke or Marion or John Wayne. It's a name that goes well together, and it's like one word - John Wayne. ~ John Wayne

The closest and most precious people in your life are guaranteed to make you feel the entire spectrum of human emotions. ~ John Wayne Gacy

A man oughta do what he thinks is best. ~ John Wayne

Never apologize, mister, it's a sign of weakness. ~ John Wayne

and I have seen them all, stars such as John Wayne (Jet Pilot with Janet Leigh), or George C. Scott (Not With My Wife, You Don't with Virna Lisi), or William Holden (The Bridges at Toko-Ri with Grace Kelly) all fly with their visors up and their oxygen masks dangling loose. I assume this is to let the cameras record them acting. No real pilot flies like that. Without a visor, the high altitude glare would blind me and ~ Ed Cobleigh

I never shot nobody I didnt have to. ~ John Wayne

I don't have to assert my virility. I think my career has shown that I'm not exactly a pantywaist. But I do take pride in my work, even to the point of being the first one on the set in the morning. I'm a professional. ~ John Wayne

This dazzling, unput-downable debut novel proves beyond a doubt that Dan Wells has the gift. His teenage protagonist is as chilling as he is endearing. More John Wayne Cleaver, please. ~ F. Paul Wilson

In my acting, I have to identify with something in the character. The big tough boy on the side of right - that's me. Simple themes. Same me from the nuances. All I do is sell sincerity and I've been selling the hell out of that ever since I started. ~ John Wayne

As we live in an insane world major, maybe it's time we gave insane solutions a chance. ~ John Wayne

A lot of people ... kind of make heroes that are separate from us, people who are, you know, like ... John Wayne and Errol Flynn and, you know, Denzel Washington ... people who are different, who are larger than life. ~ Walter Mosley

I'm not the sort to back away from a fight. I don't believe in shrinking from anything. It's not my speed; I'm a guy who meets adversities head on. ~ John Wayne

Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. ~ John Wayne

I've loved reading all my life. ~ John Wayne