I don`t want to be known as a sex symbol. There`s a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.

I just went to see too many movies and I sat in too many dark matinees watching those old serials.

I read a lot of scripts. Most of `em go to other actors.

I`m a four star general in this thing, and you don`t rise to the ranks of a four star general by hanging about the house being the perfect dad.

I was single-minded on what I wanted to do since I was like nine or ten.

Any of these Vietnam vets that have been there and know the deal, they don`t feel that any Hollywood endeavor about the Vietnam era has ever gotten it right yet.

The opportunity, number one, to work with Ang Lee is an amazing thing for me.

I think anytime you can affect people in general, in a positive way, then you`re a lucky individual.

I`ve spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you.

I`m picky, very picky. I wanted to be an actor since I was nine years old and I figured that was only one way to ever have any longevity and that`s to be careful about what kind of work you do. You can work for money, do a lot of whatever comes your way and not have any kind of a yardstick to measure quality by, and people, you know you`ll make a lot of money if you`re lucky, and people will get fed up and sick of seeing you and that`s it onto the next one. - On his career choices.

I was really happy that Ang Lee won the Best Director award, I got to know him very well on Hulk (2003). But I`m not the Brokeback Mountain (2005) crowd, what can I tell ya. I`m more of a purist. But at the same time, it`s a new day.

I think I might have been a more interesting actor, had more of a career earlier on, if I had more formal preparation. When I see something ten years later that I was in I think, "Boy, would I love to do that over."

I`ve spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you. I read a lot of scripts. Most of `em go to other actors.

[quoted in the December 1976 issue of "Playgirl"] I don`t want to be known as a sex symbol. There`s a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.