141 Best George Clooney Quotes On Politics, Life, Movies & More

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.

Never , Yourself

  

Directing is really exciting. In the end, it's more fun to be the painter than the paint.

  

I enjoy going on motorcycle trips and stopping in small towns and enjoying drinks with the locals.

  

I think people in Italy live their lives better than we do. It's an older country, and they've learned to celebrate dinner and lunch, whereas we sort of eat as quickly as we can to get through it.

Think

  

In doing the screenplay for 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' the most important thing for me was to constantly go back to wherever the opposition would argue. So I had to keep reading all the books and articles about why McCarthy is such a good guy.

Me

  

I use my film-making to work through my deep questions and my deep problems. I think I could watch each film and tell you exactly which part of my psyche I'm trying to work out.

Think , Trying

  

If people see me having dinner with a beautiful woman, they immediately believe that I'm having a love affair with her. Of course that's rubbish. I'm not a playboy!

Me

  

But I'm kind of comfortable with getting older because it's better than the other option, which is being dead. So I'll take getting older.

  

Yes, I slouch. My mother tells me that.

Me

  

I bought a piano once because I had the dream of playing As Time Goes By as some girl's leaning on it drinking a martini. Great image. But none of it worked out. I can't even play Chopsticks. But I've got a nice piano at my house!

Time

  

I've been working with Pat Robertson on Africa debt-relief, and we disagree on virtually everything except certain very specific, inalienable rights, and the truth is that morality and patriotism come in all shapes and sizes.

  

Failures are infinitely more instructive than successes.

  

I think you should automatically donate your organs because that would turn the balance of organ donation in a huge way. I would donate whatever anybody would take, and I'd probably do the cremation bit.

Think

  

In the '60s, when I was growing up, one of the great elements of American culture was the protest song. There were songs about the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the antiwar movement. It wasn't just Bob Dylan, it was everybody at the time.

Culture , Time

  

They say I was a bad Batman, that it was my fault, that I buried the franchise. But the truth is, it was a big project. I was pretty intimidated in that world. I did the best I could in the situation I was given.

  

You have only a short period of time in your life to make your mark, and I'm there now.

Life , Time

  

The simple truth is that everyone has an opinion, everyone has the right to voice it, and they should if they want to.

  

Run for office? No. I've slept with too many women, I've done too many drugs, and I've been to too many parties.

  

You make a lot of films, do you? You make a lot of films yourself? Yeah, I'd like to see you make a film first before you get to talk about it. What a jerk.

Like , Yourself

  

There's no connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq.

  

There is a strange pecking order among actors. Theatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn't have anybody to look down on.

  

I go on YouTube when somebody says to look something up.

  

My parents were disappointed I didn't finish college, and they were really upset when I went to Hollywood to become an actor. I was a big disappointment to them.

  

For me, the definition of a patriot is someone who is willing to constantly question the government; that's what separates us from other countries.

Me

  

It's possible for me to make a bad movie out of a good script, but I can't make a good movie from a bad script.

Me

  

I had to stop going to auditions thinking, 'Oh, I hope they like me.' I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem.

Like , Me

  

I do know something about the news world. I was sitting on the floors of newsrooms since I was seven years old, and I've been around them my whole life. I understand that someone looks at a story with famous people in it, and you want to put it out.

Life

  

After doing One Fine Day and playing a pediatrician on ER, I'll never have kids. I'm going to have a vasectomy.

Never

  

We're picking on people we can beat.

  

America can't beat anyone anymore.

  

The government itself is running exactly like the Sopranos and they sit back and they make deals. And they say okay, 'I'm going do this: France, you're getting the pipelines.'

Like

  

I'm not smart enough and I don't know enough about what's going on.

  

I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle Association. He deserves whatever anyone says about him.

  

I don't like to share my personal life... it wouldn't be personal if I shared it.

Life , Like

  

I grew up in the world of bad television, on my dad's sets and then as a young schmuck on dating shows and so on.

  

I'd think, 'In a relationship, we should never have his kind of fight.' Then, instead of figuring out how to make it work, I looked for a way to get out of it. The truth is, you shouldn't be married if your that kind of person.

Never , Relationship , Think

  

I'm the flavor of the month.

  

When you're young you believe it when people tell you how good you are. And that's the danger, you inhale. Everyone will tell you you're a genius, which you are not, and if you understand that, you win.

  

I'm a Method actor. I spent years training for the drinking and carousing I had to do in this film.

  

I'm certainly the last person to give advice on, well, anything.

  

Who would name their kid Jack with the last words 'off' at the end of the last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up.

  

I was in a bar and I said to a friend, 'You know, we've become those 40-year-old guys we used to look at and say, 'Isn't it sad?'

  

The idea that every time you do a film you're supposed to be tortured confuses me. I mean, guys who say, 'Oh, it's really tough, my character is really suffering' -come on. For us, even in the rotten ones we've had a good time. I don't think you have to suffer.

Character , Me , Think , Time

  

The last real movie stars were probably Redford and Newman. And things were different then. There wasn't this amazing amount of magazines and information about them.

  

People know everything about everybody now.

  

It's incredibly unfair. You don't see a lot of 60-year-old women with 20-year-old men onscreen.

  

I was watching 'Up In The Air' and I thought, 'Jesus, who's the old gray-haired guy?' And it was me. I never wear makeup for movies and now it's starting to show.

Me , Never

  

I've been lucky enough to do a few films that will last longer than an opening weekend and those films are the ones I'm proud of.

  

I don’t like to share my personal life… it wouldn’t be personal if I shared it.

Like

  

As you get older and ease your way into being a character actor you have to be comfortable with where you are in life and career, and I'm very comfortable with what I'm doing - working on projects I'm proud of.

Character , Life

  

The hardest thing is trying not to correct everything on the Internet. It'd be night and day - wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. So you just have to say, 'All right, I'll take it, bring it on.'

Trying

  

The problem is, we elected a manager and we need a leader. Let's face it: Bush is just dim.

  

I just found out about 10 days ago that I must live 300 or 400 yards from Britney Spears... so now I have to move.

  

I love children and I get along with them great. It's just that I believe if you're going to be a parent, there has to be something inside you that says, 'I want a family.' I don't feel that sense of urgency.

Family

  

Directors are the captains of the ship, and it's your job as the lead actor to make sure that the rest of the cast understand that by doing whatever he says.

  

I know what my limitations are as an actor, but my strength is putting myself into a well-written part. When I get in trouble is when I have to fix it, or when I have to carry it on personality.

Personality

  

Hollywood still makes things. We still export a couple billion dollars' worth of product overseas. Original, new product. Some people might not agree that it's original or new, but basically it is.

  

I get asked a lot about getting into politics. I say, 'Take a look at politics. You tell me what seems appealing about that.'

Me

  

You get better as an actor over time if you're growing. Like singers.

Like , Time

  

I have a real interest in pushing some of the limits of things that studios don't want to make.

  

I'm the old-fashioned type who prefers to meet a woman in a more normal setting. I don't like to feel that I'm being hunted down. I've always liked to do my own hunting when it comes to meeting women.

Like

  

It's not about an opening weekend. It's about a career, building a set of films you're proud of. Period.

  

Most of the films I've done haven't done particularly well. I'm surprised I'm continuing to work.

  

An acting career usually has about a shelf life of ten years before people get sick of seeing you. It's a good thing to have a job to fall back on and I really do enjoy directing.

Life

  

I'm only two years older than Brad Pitt, but I look a lot older, which used to greatly frustrate me. It doesn't anymore. I don't have to fit into that category and get trounced by Tom Cruise and Brad.

Me

  

The first thing that I learned - and I understood it at a really young age - was that I could get a laugh. Really early. Because my mother and father are funny.

  

I probably wouldn't be a good spokesman for an electric car, because I'll still get on a private jet, and one flight on a private jet undoes all my electric-car good deeds.

  

I had my Aunt Rosie, who was famous and then not, so I got a lesson in fame early on. And I understood how little it has to do with you. And also how you could use it.

  

If you're famous, I don't - for the life of me - I don't understand why any famous person would ever be on Twitter.

Life , Me

  

When you first start out, you are just happy to get a job, any job. And as time goes on, either you move forward or screech to a halt.

Time

  

Without question, I wake every night five times.

  

The loneliest you will get is in the most public of arenas: You will go to a place and end up in the smallest compartment possible, because it's a distraction to everybody, and you end up not getting to enjoy it like everyone else.

Like

  

Anyone would be lying if they said they didn't get lonely at times.

  

I'm not out trying to prove anything. I'm sort of finished with that, so I get to play in other sandboxes and try and figure out what I like and I'm interested in.

Like , Trying

  

After a while, you just want transportation, and things like cool cars or motorcycles are all about getting attention. I get all the attention I could ever need, so I kind of like being in a minivan and people not paying so much attention to me.

Like , Me

  

My father was and is a great journalist. Thirty years ago, I was studying broadcasting in college, and the problem was I wasn't nearly as good as my father. I wasn't as quick or as smart as my old man, and I realized it would be a long time before I was ever going to be, and I decided to do something else.

Time

  

I had a Tesla. I was one of the first cats with a Tesla. But I'm telling you, I've been on the side of the road a while in that thing.

  

I don't know if winning at any cost is wrong or not. There are times I've thought that the end justified the means.

  

Directing is much more satisfying to me than acting.

Me

  

The people I've respected most in the industry over the years - Paul Newman, for instance. I just loved the way he handled growing old on-screen. It's understanding that you're now basically a character actor. Which is fine, but you have to pay attention to it.

Character

  

I find that as you get older, you start to simplify things in general.

  

I don't go on that many dates, because the truth is, anytime you go out in public with a girl when you're well-known, there are pictures of you everywhere, and it's like you're a thing.

Like

  

I've been my most happy and my most unhappy in relationships. I have family and friends and people I care very much about. I've got a really, really, really good life.

Family , Life

  

I think it's the most responsible thing you can do, to have kids. It's not something to be taken lightly. I don't have that gene that people have to replicate.

Think

  

My grandparents back in Kentucky owned a tobacco farm. So, to make money in the summer, we could cut and chop and top and house and strip the tobacco.

  

Over the years, over the history of our country, liberals have stood on many of the right sides of the issues.

  

You have to remember that in the microcosm of Cincinnati, Ohio, through northern Kentucky, my father was a big star, still is. So that made my sister and me really visible. Everybody knew us, talked about us.

Me

  

I rarely tell anybody what they should be doing with their life.

Life

  

I'm the least metrosexual cat you've ever met. I've never had my fingernails or toenails done, and I've cut my own hair longer than other people have cut my hair.

Never

  

On an awards-show day, I can play basketball, go in, take a shower and put on a tux - it takes me three minutes to put on a tux - and be out the door in 15 minutes.

Me

  

Growing old on screen is not for the faint of heart.

  

There's a certain cruelty to being on a big screen as your eyelids start to sag and your hair falls out and turns gray that you either have to be able to handle or not. What you can't do is try to force yourself into roles that you could have played or would have played ten years earlier.

Yourself

  

I've walked with very famous people down red carpets over to the crowd of thousands of people, and you'll reach out to shake their hand and they've got a camera in their hand. And they don't even get their hand out, because they're recording the whole time.

Time

  

'Ides of March' I did for scale - scale as a director, scale as an actor, scale as a writer.

  

I enjoy living in a nice house and having a nice life. So I do two or three commercials overseas a year to sort of fill in, because they pay pretty well.

Life

  

My life isn't focused on results. My life is really focused on the process of doing all the things I'm doing, from work to relationships to friendships to charitable work.

Life

  

Hosting is work. It means you don't get to go up to your room and disappear and take a nap. Like everybody else does after lunch. I'm talking about hosting, not hosting a dinner party, but hosting people staying in your home.

Like

  

I can't give you 150 takes. I can't even give you 30 different ways of doing it! I don't have the talent or the range for it.

  

I watch 'Batman & Robin' from time to time. It's the worst movie I ever made, so it's a good lesson in humility.

Time

  

It's not that I lead this oblivious life where I think I've got such a great personality that people want to spend time with me. If someone has a poster of you or asks for your autograph, clearly you can't take them out on a date. It's not that interesting if someone is just interested in you.

Life , Me , Personality , Think , Time