Steve McQueen Quotations

I'm not sure that acting is something for a grown man to be doing.

I'm not a great actor - let's face it. I don't have a great deal of scope. There are certain things I can do, but when I'm bad, I stink. There's something about my shaggy dog eyes that makes people think I'm good. I'm not all that good.

I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth.

When I did 'The Great Escape,' I kept thinking, 'If they were making a movie of my life, that's what they'd call it - the great escape.'

We started a couple of weeks ago, but it will take a few months to put it all together. It's just people volunteering from work. Everybody is helping out.

We can't do it every year because we don't want to overlap with other fire departments in Niagara Falls and throughout the Region.

I don't want to talk about nonsense because it doesn't help me.

I love creating images, of course, because I'm an artist.

Often the best way to relax is just to go back to work.

The best thing about making films is the time spent making them. When I see works that I've made, I always think what a great time I had making them. The films remind me of that time.

I want people to do what they want to do because when they feel comfortable it seems to translate better on screen. It is when you put people in a straitjacket that it doesn't seem to translate very well at all. The individuals I work with are usually people I know.

I find it difficult to breathe when l'm in the space. There seems to be no oxygen. I want to put people into a situation where they're sensitive to themselves watching the piece.

There is no right or wrong angle for something. The idea of putting the camera in an unfamiliar position is simply to do with film language. Sometimes it is spectacular, sometimes it is ugly, sometimes it is uninteresting.

The Navajos have a saying they live by: 'A land where there is time enough and room enough.' I want that, too.

When I walk out into the street or go to the toilet, I don't think of myself as being black. Of course, other people think of me as black when I walk into a pub. Obviously being black is a part of me.

Ill never be as good an actor as I want to be....but I'll be good.

I need to have a reason why I'm doing something. Otherwise I'm lost.

Stardom equals financial success and financial success equals security. I've spent too much of my life feeling insecure. I still have nightmares about being poor, of everything I own just vanishing away. Stardom means that can't happen.

As far as art and filmmaking is concerned, I don't see there's any separation; it's just one continuous thing.

The camera movement should be like a cat jumping onto a table - with just enough amount of effort and that's it. That's enough.

I always feel I'm an amateur. I don't most of the time know what I'm doing.

I think as an actor, you're more like a dancer, and you have to use your body. I don't understand all these questions about nudity. It's a nonsense. He's an actor, an artist, so get on with it.

When I believe in something, I fight like hell for it.

I deal with certain things in my work because of who I am. I make work in order to make people think.

Acting is like racing, you need the same concentration. You have to reach inside you and bring forth a lot of broken glass. That's painful.

I don't know why it (stardom) happened-but it's kinda nice. Maybe it's because I'm someone off the streets. Maybe people relate to me.

I really don't like to act. At the beginning, back in '51, I had to force myself to stick with it. I was real uncomfortable, real uncomfortable.

The world is as good as you are. You've got to learn to like yourself first.

I liked being in the Marines. They gave me discipline I could live with. By the time I got out, I was able to cope with things on a more realistic level.

The person is being confrontational.

Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live,

Stardom equals freedom. It's the only equation that matters.

Nobody trusts anyone, or why did they put tilt on a pinball machine....

When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.

I live for myself and answer to nobody

When a horse learns to buy martinis, I'll learn to like horses.

I worked hard, and if you work hard you get the goodies.

I've got a feeling I'm leaving stardom behind, you know. I'm gradually becoming more of a filmmaker, acquiring a different kind of dignity from that which you achieve in acting. After all, I'm no matinee idol, and I'm getting older. I don't think I can be doing my kind of thing in the seventies; I want to be on more of the creative side of business.

Sometimes you have to bend with the breeze or you break.

You see, I don't believe in that grabbin' and grabbin' and stuffin yourself and not givin' anythin' or puttin' it back.

One of the things that make motorcycling so great is because it never fails to give you a feeling of freedom and adventure.

Racing is life. Everything else is just waiting.

I have difficulty putting words in peoples' mouths. The best dialogue is very, very thin dialogue; you let people improvise and then basically you record what they've improvised and then write it down.

I don't like to put too much effort into things. I find that once you get involved with special effects it is no longer about what is happening in front of the camera and I really want to concentrate on what is happening in front of the camera, like the man apparently peeing on the surface of the screen.

People try to contain things by putting them into categories. I don't.

If I hadn't made it as an actor, I might have wound up a hood....

I believe in me. I'm a little screwed up, but I'm beautiful

Anything that doesn't make sense, I don't want to give too much of my brain to.

I hope you find what you're looking for.

Sometimes you have to say goodbye to the things you know and hello to the things you dont.

Every time I start thinking the world is all bad, then I start seeing people out there having a good time on motorcycles. It makes me take another look.