[on Dustin Hoffman] If a guy like him can become a star, what’ll happen to guys like Newman and me?
Listen, in Taiwan most people don’t know who Lyndon Johnson is, but they sure as hell know who John Wayne is.
I just want the pine trees and my kids and the green grass. I want to get rich and fat and watch my children grow.
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.
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[on “An Enemy of the People”] The main thing I was shooting for was not to make bucks but to have something I could believe in.
I’m out of the Midwest. It was a good place to come from. It gives you a sense of right or wrong and fairness, which is lacking in our society.
I really don’t like to act. At the beginning, back in ’52, I had to force myself to stick with it. I was real uncomfortable, real uncomfortable.
I am a limited actor. My range isn’t that great and I don’t have that much scope. I’m pretty much myself most of the time in my movies and I have accepted that.
The Marines gave me discipline I could live with. By the time I got out I could deal with things on a more realistic level. All in all, despite my problems, I liked my time in the Marines.
When a kid didn’t have any love when he was small, he begins to wonder if he’s good enough. You know if my mother didn’t love me, and I didn’t have a father, I mean, well, I guess I’m not very good.
An actor is a puppet, manipulated by a dozen other people. Auto racing has dignity. But you need the same absolute concentration. You have to reach inside yourself and bring forth a lot of broken glass.
I have to be careful because I’m a limited actor. I mean, my range isn’t very great. There’s a whole lot of stuff I can’t do, so I have to find characters and situations that feel right. Even then, when I’ve got something that fits, it’s a hell of a lot of work. I’m not a serious actor. There’s something about my shaggy-dog eyes that makes people think I’m good. I’m not all that good.
Steve McQueen Movie Quotes
As Rocky Papasano in the movie Love with the Proper Stranger (1963):
Angie Rossini: You better understand something here and now – what we did before, that was something happened – don’t ask me how or why. But it’s not going to happen again.
Rocky Papasano: Well, why not?
Angie Rossini: [Yelling] Don’t you understand? I didn’t *know* you then. I didn’t *care* about you. But I *know* you now. I *LIKE* you.
Rocky Papasano: Man, I end up with the…
Angie Rossini: [Angrily] Look, why don’t you sit down? I invited you to dinner, let’s have DINNER.
Rocky Papasano: Tell me something. That cook – that friend of yours in the restaurant business. Do you like him too the way you like me now, or don’t you care about him the way you used to not care about me?
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As Lt. Fergie Howard in the movie The Honeymoon Machine (1961): Any girl that would double-cross her own father, that’s my kind of woman.
As Bullitt in the movie Bullitt (1968):
Walter Chalmers: Frank, we must all compromise. Bullitt: Bullshit.
As Rocky Papasano in the movie Love with the Proper Stranger (1963):
Angie Rossini: It seems very funny, putting you together with a family, somehow.
Rocky Papasano: Well, what did you think – I got hatched out of an egg?
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Roman Marshanski is the founder of Humoropedia.com and former Hollywood actor. You can Google his name to see the list of his movies (or you can click on his name above this box to visit his personal website). He wrote thousands of pages of fiction. Some of that fictional writing is screenplays and a lot of it is comedic writing. So he completed two feature film screenplays and many shorter literary works, some of which are comedy. He did most of that writing during his film career as a Hollywood actor. He was the lead actor in Rebecca Cremona's Magdalena. Rebecca Cremona was Steven Spielberg's protege on Munich. So he has a deep understanding of the creative process and can be considered an authority on all things related to humor. Indeed, his screenplays contain a lot of humor. That's where his love for jokes started. Eventually, this love of jokes led Roman to the creation of Humoropedia.com, the wonderful home of funny jokes and witty puns. He thinks humor is something very good. If you also think so, please follow him on X now because he has a sense of humor.
