Sylvester Stallone Quotes

Study people's success stories hard. Study their failures even harder.

I know I'm incredibly unpredictable, and that's the only thing I'm sure of.

I'm more focused and have a greater sense of challenge, because I constantly feel the weight of time.

I'm a patriot of the heart.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Voices are like fingerprints, from Cagney to Bogart. They never lost it. My voice is instrumental in categorizing me.

I love being verbal in films.

Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older.

Movies are a whole different ball-game, now. It's much more of a business - very scientific.

When I tried to play characters that strayed from who I am it ended in disaster. People didn't expect me in comedies or musicals.

I've had a lot of operations. I'm kind of like Franken-actor.

I respect a woman too much to marry her.

Once I stopped trying to always do everything my way, and once I asked for God's help, things have truly gone a different direction.

I'm not just painting for painting's sake. I want to be truthful.

I'm not right wing, I'm not left wing. I love my country.

I have all kinds of chest injuries; I tore my vein during 'Rocky II' and had 60 stitches. If you've seen 'Rocky Balboa,' you'll know how bad they look.

I never started out to be an action actor. I was an ensemble actor. "Rocky" was an ensemble film. "F.I.S.T." was an ensemble. "Paradise Alley" was an ensemble.

I wish I had thought of Velcro muscles myself. I didn't have to go to the gym for all those years, all the hours wedded to the iron game, as we call it.

I would never run for president.

If I'd succeeded right away at acting I wouldn't have sought out writing.

I wanted to show I had balls at age 60.

Boxing is the only sport where you have the audience coming right up to you and saying, "You Stink." And you got to deal with that. It's like being in front of the lions.

I love being so tight on people in close-ups that the veins in their eyes look like the Mississippi River.

I think I came along at an opportune time. I don't know if that would happen anymore, because the whole way of doing business in Hollywood has changed.

You cannot train yourself. I feel the same way about Christianity and about what the church is: The church is the gym of the soul.

I love art more than anything in the world except for my family.

Every rep I did on chin-ups, on squats with 500 pounds, I never said, to myself, 'Oh, my God, another rep.' I said, 'Yes, another rep, because that will make my dream turn into a reality.'

You know you've been around when they start to remake your own movies when you're still alive.

You know what I think happened? After 'Rocky,' I was almost set up in the eyes of the media to make a flop.

When I'm on a location, I pick a restaurant that's close and private and eat all my meals there.

When I was a kid, my mother used to feed me mashed-potato sandwiches, brussel sprout sandwiches; my brain cells were starving from lack of food. I'll eat anything. I'll eat dirt.

There might have been a period around 'Tango & Cash' when I was nearly fashionable. My problem is that my weight's always been changing for the movies I'm in.

Years ago I was diagnosed with a condition and my doctors prescribed human growth hormone and testosterone for its treatment. Under medical supervision I have continued to use both medications.

I know I can't play funny roles in movies. I tried, and it didn't work.

When people meet me they’re often surprised. I talk a great deal.

I'm always looking for a new challenge. There are a lot of mountains to climb out there. When I run out of mountains, I'll build a new one.

You have to be really loyal to the people that supported you when you were coming up.

When boxers are in the ring, they're simple. It's when the fight is over, that's when the other fight, the real fight, begins. That's the problem.

People assume that 'The Expendables' is old school, but it's only old school because that's the way I know how to make an action film. It's pretty real.

I'm astounded by people who take eighteen years to write something. That's how long it took that guy to write Madame Bovary, and was that ever on the best-seller list?

I believe an artist dies twice. The first time, it's just terrible - I've been there when the phone isn't ringing for years.

I just fight in my movies, never in real life.

The men in Vietnam weren't allowed to fight the war with any kind of concern to win by the government. It was like a war of attrition.

Rocky would definitely run for councilman. Maybe mayor. But these people are actually most effective in the family unit. That's where they shine.

Today's action hero, his skills are through technology. He can fly, he can throw a bolt of lightning, he can freeze people.

I think there's something about being a neophyte that's refreshing and hard to duplicate; it brings about real innovation. Innovation usually comes about through blind ignorance.

The man who can best gets along with women, is the man who can get along without them.

I feel that America is like a child that grew up so strong and so fast and so tall that it became self-conscious about its size and started to stoop over so as not to offend anyone.

For 'Rocky II,' I got a torn pectoral muscle, I got all beat up inside, I had to have an operation to splice things back together.

Usually whenever you're scared of something, do it. If you're not afraid of it, don't do it.