Quotes from Sylvester Stallone.

"That's what Rocky (1976) is all about: pride, reputation, and not being another bum in the neighborhood."

"I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works."

[Explaining to 'The New York Times' on how he wrote the script for Rocky (1976) in three days]: "I'm astounded by people who take 18 years to write something. That's how long it took that guy [Gustave Flaubert] to write 'Madame Bovary.' And was that ever on the best-seller list? No. It was a lousy book and it made a lousy movie."

(In 1976, after completing production on "Rocky II"): "But there'll never be a 'Rocky IV.' You gotta call a halt."

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

"I think it's very dangerous waters. In that particular field you can't yell 'action' and 'cut' and 'take two' and 'take three'. I personally think actors should remain actors, but I know he's always had blind ambition for that, so maybe it'll work out for him." - On Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for Governor of California in 2003

"Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you're gonna have. It's pathetic. It really is pathetic. It's sad. We're living in the Dark Ages over there. It has to be stopped, and someone really has to go on the line, a certain dauntless political figure, and say, it's ending, it's over, all bets are off.' It's not two hundred years ago, we don't need this any more, and the rest of the world doesn't have it. Why should we?" [Following the murder of Phil Hartman in 1998]

"I had no idea Ellen [Barkin] was in the restaurant. If she was coughing or dying, she was doing it politely. I would have been more than happy to reach down her throat or squeeze her hard. Sat there dumbfounded? Please! I would have rallied round - just to avoid paying the bill."

"I'm five foot ten and weigh 177 pounds. I'm pleased with my body now." (1991)

"People accept Rocky Balboa as authentic. I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and asked about my boxing career. It's like they really want to believe that Rocky exists. You know, I'm amazed by all of this. At one time I thought people would get over their fascination with the character and move on. Didn't happen. After thirty years, Rocky has taken hold to a degree I never could have imagined."

"It's a huge shock. It just makes me realize how fragile life is." [Following John Ritter's death in 2003]

"I'm not a genetically superior person. I built my body."

"We're talking about doing another Rambo because I think it's time to combine action with politics." (2002)

"I'll just go on playing Rambo and Rocky. Both are money-making machines that can't be switched off."

"I'm a very physical person. People don't credit me with much of a brain, so why should I disillusion them?"

"After I made Cop Land (1997) in which I played a timid, overweight cop, all of Hollywood turned their back. I'm surprised they even gave me this table. I'm like driftwood in here." (1999)

"I know I cannot hold on to them forever, but I will as long as I can. I pity the first boy to knock on the door for a date. I'm gonna buy ten more Rambo outfits just to make sure they're too scared to put a foot wrong. They will probably all run a mile, which suits me just fine. I know I won't be able to help myself playing the worried dad. My girls were born with the flirt gene. It's very funny, but it also worries me about what a handful I will have in a few years time. I know it's stupid - I just don't want them to grow up. I love my family. I can't imagine life without them all in the house."

"I really am a manifestation of my own fantasy."

"All art, in this business, is a matter of compromise. It's not one man's vision unless he takes very weak actors."

"I'd say between 3 pm and 8 pm I look great. After that it's all downhill. Don't photograph me in the morning or you're gonna get Walter Brennan.