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James Stewart Quotes
• Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.
• Well, I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.
• One time they traded me for seven horses. Seven stunt horses.
• I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, and I'm happy, Doctor, I finally won out over it.
• I was going to be an architect. I graduated with a degree in architecture and I had a scholarship to go back to Princeton and get my Masters in architecture. I'd done theatricals in college, but I'd done them because it was fun.
• When it came to kissing, Harlow was the best.
• If I had my career over again? Maybe I'd say to myself, speed it up a little.
• Well, you look about the kind of angel I'd get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you? What happened to your wings?
• On the whole, it's been a darn wonderful life. I've had so many blessings and good fortune.
• After the awards, I didn't win, my father called me up and told me that the man from Johnstown had put all kinds of signs in the theatre saying, 'This year's Academy Award winner... ' because my father had said I was going to win. And I didn't. But this guy asked if it would be alright if he took the Oscar and put it in the lobby and put a sign saying, 'This is what it would look like if he had won'.
• Frank called me one day and said, 'I have an idea for a movie, why don't you come over and I'll tell you?' So I went over and we sat down and he said, 'This picture starts in heaven'. That shook me.
• We size our summer class to anticipate our needs, hoping all of them get offers and all of them accept.
• My mother approved, my father just didn't accept the idea of my being an actor. I think that's the reason he kept the hardware store in operation, because I think he was pretty sure that I was going to be found out sooner or later, and he wanted to have a job for me to come back to.
• I always stayed for the first curtain call and people always said, 'Who's that?' But this got me started in acting.
• It's well done if you can do a part and not have the acting show.
• William Wyler has always been famous for taking a lot of takes. There is this story that he did this scene with a bunch of very competent people, a very important scene in the movie, and he'd already done it thirty times. One of them came to Willie and said, 'I want to know what we're doing wrong. What do you want us to do?' And Willie said, 'No, you're doing it fine. I'm just waiting for something to happen'.
• One time they traded me for seven horses. Seven stunt horses.
• We had an apartment on west side of Central Park. The rent was very reasonable. We found out later that it belonged to a gangster called Legs Diamond and it was a front to his headquarters. It was fine.
• He called me up saying, 'What's all this I hear about you making a dirty picture?'
• I always told Hitch that it would have been better to put seats around the set and sell tickets.
• All the senators were there, and Frank Capra was in a box with his wife with the vice president and his wife, and several other senators. They, as the picture started going, became very quiet. After the picture had been going for three quarters of an hour, the film broke. Frank didn't know where the projection room was exactly, and he found himself outside the building, crawling up a ladder.
• It was amazing that a play that seems dated in this world... A man whose best friend is a six-foot white rabbit... But it caught on, especially with young people - they surprised me most of all.
• This was the time of training, when you were learning your craft, and I don't think that you can work too hard at that particular time.
• It's much easier, for example, to play a heroin addict and you're withdrawing - you tear the ceiling off - that's much easier than it is to come in and say, 'Hello.' Or, 'I love you'. When you judge it in that way, the heavy isn't as difficult.
• Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day and say: I'm free to think and to speak.
• As a football player at Princeton, I always felt like Dolly Parton's shoulder straps - I knew I had a job to do, but I felt totally incapable of doing it.
• Film itself is very technical, and I think you need this period when things are a little out of control for it to work right.
• I always stayed for the first curtain call and people always said, 'Who's that?' But this got me started in acting.
• I'd like to do Harvey again. I did it two years ago with Helen Hayes in New York. It was a joy. I was so glad to do it again because I never thought I did it right the first time.
• I lasted one night. They said my playing spoiled people's appetites.
• Not all of us were working at the same time, but enough of us... Hank Fonda knew how to cook rice. We lived pretty much on a rice diet.
• Well, I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.
• I don't necessarily support the war.
• She didn't know who told anybody to do any of that.
• Just to look at it, most people, even other law enforcement agencies, would not have noticed that particular patch had been expired.
• I think we will see a rebound in the economy partly because of this substantial easing that we've seen from the Fed, but I think it will be delayed. I think we are likely to see clear evidence of this emerging towards the end of the fourth quarter this year and a rebound well under way in the first quarter next year.
• I always watch Dean Martin's show ... just to see if he falls down.
• There was nobody like him, and he'll be hard to replace. I've lost a wonderful friend. The world has lost a tremendous contribution to the art of film and to millions and millions of people.
• I sort of got into Westerns... It was a sort of desperation move, really. I had several pictures that didn't go very well, and I just realised that I would have to try something else.
• It's not just the election.
• It's much easier, for example, to play a heroin addict and you're withdrawing - you tear the ceiling off - that's much easier than it is to come in and say, 'Hello.' Or, 'I love you'. When you judge it in that way, the heavy isn't as difficult.
• And in my opinion we had a true coalition of forces.
• What you are seeing is an improved equity market, a deteriorating bond market and the currency under control. The government is very aware that it mustn't loose this advantageous combination.
• And for close-range projectors and domestic use, brightness is not so much of a problem.
• Maybe we are already seeing strong sterling impacting on the sector.
• As far as industrial output is concerned it is quite clear from the orders data, that new orders in Germany are likely to see further falls.
• The U.S. is going to take a long time to turn around -- but Europe will take a lot longer.
• A half (percentage) point cut will offer some comfort to the European markets, ... A quarter is not helpful.
• I was saying to myself, 'Down goes Frazier!'
James Stewart Filmography
1978 - The Magic of Lassie
1978 - The Big Sleep
1977 - Airport ’77
1976 - The Shootist
1970 - The Cheyenne Social Club
1968 - Bandolero!
1965 - The Flight of the Phoenix
1965 - The Rare Breed
1964 - Cheyenne Autumn
1962 - Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation
1962 - How the West Was Won
1962 - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1961 - Two Rode Together
1959 - Anatomy of a Murder
1958 - Vertigo
1957 - Night Passage
1957 - The Spirit of St. Louis
1955 - The Man from Laramie
1955 - The Man Who Knew Too Much
1954 - Rear Window
1954 - The Glenn Miller Story
1954 - The Far Country
1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth
1952 - Bend of the River
1952 - The Naked Spur
1951 - No Highway
1950 - Broken Arrow
1950 - Winchester ’73
1950 - Harvey
1949 - Malaya
1948 - Rope
1948 - Call Northside 777
1947 - Magic Town
1946 - It’s a Wonderful Life
1941 - Ziegfeld Girl
1940 - The Shop Around the Corner
1940 - The Philadelphia Story
1940 - The Mortal Storm
1939 - Destry Rides Again
1939 - Mr Smith Goes to Washington
1938 - You Can’t Take It With You
1938 - Vivacious Lady
1937 - The Last Gangster
1937 - Seventh Heaven
1936 - After the Thin Man
1936 - Born to Dance
1936 - The Gorgeous Hussy
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