We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.

You know you`re getting old when all the names in your black book have M. D. after them.

Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice.

It`s a little-known fact, but I wanted Han Solo to die at the end of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). I thought it would give more weight and resonance. But George Lucas wasn`t sympathetic. He didn`t want me killed by those teddy bear guys.

My approach to acting is the let`s pretend school of acting. If real emotion is available, use it, otherwise I follow what I think is an AA rule: `Fake it till you make it.` Emotions are an interesting language. Sometime they sneak up on you when you`re not expecting, when you are available to it.

I had a very strong feeling about the Vietnam War, and I had a strong feeling about participating in it. The military draft was in place, I was summoned for a physical exam, and I was either going to be classified as fit for military service or make my objection to it. So I made my objection to it.

Identification solely with Star Wars could have been the beginning and the end, with no middle, to my career.

[Talking about George Lucas]: "He doesn`t really understand the nature of acting. He`s like `It`s right there, it`s right there. I wrote it, it`s there, just do it.` But you can`t just do it that easily."

I`m very troubled by the proliferation of arms, at the fact so many people in the United States carry guns. It obviously contributes greatly to the crime problems we have. I`m sure gun laws should be strengthened in the United States. I just don`t know the correct mechanism.

I saw a bit of director Steve Gaghan`s movie Syriana (2005), and I wish I`d played the part that was offered to me - George`s part. I didn`t feel strongly enough about the truth of the material and I think I made a mistake. I think the film underwent some changes, and I think a lot of it is very truthful: the things that I thought weren`t, were obviated after I left the table.

[Talking about the appeal of Indiana Jones]: "Indiana Jones is always getting in way over his head and just barely getting out by the skin of his teeth."

I think American films right now are suffering from an excess of scale. Lots of movies we`re seeing now are more akin to video games than stories about human life and relationships. Twelve-to-twenty-year-olds are maybe the largest economic force in the US movie business. I`m not a very nostalgic person - but I enjoy a good story.

You know you`re getting old when all the names in your black book have M. D. after them.

I had no expectation of the level of adulation that would come my way. I just wanted to make a living with a regular role in a television series.

I don`t want to be a movie star. I want to be in movies that are stars.

Nothing shocks me. I`m a scientist.

I`m very disturbed about the direction American foreign policy is going. I think something needs to be done to help alleviate the conditions which have created a disenfranchised and angry faction in the Middle East. I don`t think military intervention is the correct solution. I regret what we as a country have done so far.

Failure in all other fields. [on what made him choose acting as a profession]

There have been times in my life when I have felt I was lonely, but I don`t think you want to live your life in order to mitigate against loneliness. - from People magazine (June 23, 2003 issue)

[Talking about Blade Runner (1982)]: "It could have been so much more than a cult movie."

[On his marriage to Melissa Mathison] "It was just part of the continuum of the relationship . . . I don`t know if I ever proposed to her".

[After his first screen test] The studio guy told me, "Kid, you have no future in this business." I said, "Why?" He said, "When Tony Curtis first walked onscreen carrying a bag of groceries -- a bag of groceries! -- you took one look at him and said, `THAT`S a movie star!`" I said, "Weren`t you supposed to say, `That`s a grocery delivery boy?`"

What does that mean [when a director says] `trust me`? Does that mean I should obviate all of my experience? Should I replace a certain knowledge with belief? Where does that get you? I have had experience in my life. I am 63 years old. Why should I be trusting a director?

It`s very little trouble for me to accommodate my fans, unless I`m actually taking a pee at the time.

The loss of anonymity is something that nobody can prepare you for. When it happened, I recognized that I`d lost one of the most valuable things in life. To this day, I`m not all that happy about it.

I think I did have a reputation for being grumpy. I don`t think I`m grumpy. I have opinions. I have an independent vision. I am a purposeful person. But on a daily basis, I think I`m other than grumpy. I think it is a case where I am coming to do business and not there just to be flattered and cajoled and used.

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.

[To cinema owners in Las Vegas] "I`ll make you a deal. I`ll try to keep making films that put people in your theatre seats and you try to keep their shoes from sticking to the floor."

I am Irish as a person, but I feel Jewish an an actor.

[Asked if he would ever play Han Solo again] "No, because I have outgrown that character".

I don`t think I`ve mastered anything.I`m still wrestling with the same frustrations, the same issues, the same problems as I always did. That`s what life is like.

I grew up in the mid-west. You don`t ask what a person`s religion is, you don`t ask what their politics are, you don`t ask how much money they make and I pretty much still have that attitude about it. It`s none of anybody`s business and I don`t advantage anyone by telling them what my personal politics are ... The arguments are much too subtle to be entered in that way, to my mind. There are things that I think are happening in he world that are egregious mistakes but I`m only operating out of my own box and I don`t have any expertise. I`m a voter ... I have one vote, that`s all I should have.

[When asked: If heaven exists, what would you want God to say to you at the pearly gates] "You`re a lot better looking in person."

I am not the first man who wanted to make changes in his life at 60 and I won`t be the last. It is just that others can do it with anonymity. I was interested in changing my life. I have always had the ability to change and become other people through my acting. I took a good look at myself and decided I wanted something different from the way I was living. That`s not such a bad thing, is it? But, because of my past, I think it took a lot of people by surprise. They wondered what was happening to me. I was very much aware of what was happening. I`m living the way I want to live.

Los Angeles is where you have to be if you want to be an actor. You have no choice. You go there or New York. I flipped a coin about it. It came up New York, so I flipped again. When you`re starting out to be an actor, who wants to go where it`s cold and miserable and be poor there?

I started by chasing a Folger`s commercial. But I just somehow couldn`t manage to say, `Honey, that`s a great cup of coffee.` [on the early days of his career]

Before, I was grateful for a job, almost any job. Now, I`m apprehensive, but I know I have other options, and when I ask for the money, they pay it. It`s that simple.

I confused them so badly that they never took action on my petition. My conscientious objection wasn`t based on a history of religious affiliation, which made it difficult at the time. I went back to my philosophy training from college. I remembered Paul Tillich`s phrase, `If you have trouble with the word God, take whatever is central or most meaningful to your life and call that God.` I always had trouble with the notion of God in a stand-up form. So I developed a thesis and took the Biblical injunction to love thy neighbor as thyself as the central and most meaningful thing in my life. I combined it all and typed for days and sent it off and never heard a word. Never got called in. - On registering as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War.

[Talking about George Lucas]: "I think George likes people. I think George is a kind, warm hearted person, but he can be a little impatient with the nature of acting, the need to work till you find something. He`s like `It`s right there, it`s right there, I wrote it, it`s there, just do it.` But you can`t just do it that easily."

I am a kinder, gentler Harrison Ford than I once was.

[about Han Solo, speaking in 1979] He`s not a cardboard character to me at all. He`s as real as anything else. I never thought of the character as having only two dimensions until the critics said so. And they`re wrong. The third dimension is me.

I used to shake my head, as in No, I just look like him." But that`s not fair. So I said to those little old ladies at Trenton airport, "Yes, I am Harrison Ford". And they still didn`t believe it was me."

[Asked if he would ever play Indiana Jones again] "In a New York minute".

Once a film is finished, it`s over for me. I`m on to something else. [explaining his disinterest in reliving the role of Han Solo, even after the Star Wars trilogy was reissued in 1997]

[Acknowledging that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg originally wanted another actor to play Indiana Jones]: "My playing Indy was mentioned to me about only six weeks before shooting started, but being second choice wasn`t at all offensive. I would always assume that it would be normal for a director - once having worked with an actor in a particular part - not to think of him for something else. I`d presume that he`d want to accentuate the difference between the two characters by having another actor. I was more than happy when they did ask me to play Indiana Jones, because it promised to be a terrific role in a great film."

Different clothes, different character. That`s how I feel about it. [From an interview explaining that Indiana Jones was not the same character as Han Solo]

[On playing Indianna Jones again] "No one wants to see a hero have to pick up his cane to hit someone, but I`m still quite fit enough to fake it."

If people recognize me when I`m out in public, I`m very nice to them. I`m very nice to people even when they don`t recognize me. I don`t even mind if people come up to me while I`m eating dinner, but if they recognize me while I`m having sex, I refuse to sign autographs.

(on Star Wars) - "I understood the impact of those movies because I had young children who watched them religiously. I saw the Star Wars films so often in my house that I ended up knowing all of the other actors lines."

(asked if he believes in "the Force":) "I think the Force is in you. Force yourself."

Whoever had the bright idea of putting Indiana Jones in a leather jacket and a fedora in the jungle ought to be dragged into the street and shot."

"Starring in a science fiction film doesn`t mean you have to act science fiction."

"You know you are getting old when all the names in your black book have MD after them."

I don`t do stunts - I do running, jumping and falling down. After 25 years I know exactly what I`m doing."

"I don`t use any particular method. I`m from the lets-pretend school of acting."

[On being a leading man] "I`m like a fireman. When I go out on a call, I want to put out a big fire, I don`t want to put out a fire in a dumpster."