James Garner "What have I learned?"

What have I learned? I learned, at the age of fourteen, that I had to fight my own battles. That's when I made up my mind that nobody would ever step on me again.

If you survive combat, you think of every day after it as a gift. I don't think people appreciate life as much as those who've gone through that.

You have to take risks to get rewards. When you're standing on the edge of a cliff trying to get up the courage to jump off and fly, it always looks a lot farther down than you think.

People ask me what I'm proudest of, careerwise. They expect me to name a movie or a television show, but the thing I'm proudest of professionally is that I never kissed anyone's butt.

Success doesn't change people. If they get difficult and arrogant, they were that way before and just weren't in a position to show it.

I don't believe that nice guys finish last. I've known too many wonderful people who finished first because they had lots of help. The best way to accomplish your goal is to have other people pulling on the rope with you. If you have a team where everyone embraces the same general principles and tries to help one another, you have a much better chance of winning.

Is the audience always right? Noooo! Look at all the trash out there.

I've been married to the same woman for over half a century and the list of my leading ladies is a Hollywood Who's Who, but I don't claim to know anything about women. Half the time you think you know them, but you don't. All I know is, I love them. I love them all. But I'm afraid of them.

I think there's something out there bigger than we are, but I don't have a clue what it is.

Something funny happens as you get older. You loosen up. You get a little freer and a little braver. You don't hold back so much. You try not to get too high or too low. When your feelings go up and down that's called stress, and it's a killer. And you're not so insecure. Believe me, I am insecure.

At the end of the day when you put your head on your pillow there is only one person you had better please: yourself.