JOHN WAYNE REAL LIFE QUOTES
JOHN WAYNE WAS WELL KNOWN FOR HIS POLITICAL BELIEFS AND OPINIONS. OFTEN HE MADE POLITICAL COMMENTS THROUGH HUMOR. HERE ARE A FEW OF THOSE COMMENTS.
ON HOW HIS CAREER TURNED OUT, WAYNE SAID:
"IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR FOOTBALL AND THE FACT I GOT MY LEG BROKE AND HAD TO GO INTO THE MOVIES TO EAT, WHY, WHO KNOWS, I MIGHTA TURNED OUT TO BE A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT."
AT THE 1968 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION, WAYNE COMMENTED FLATLY ON HIS POLITICAL AMBITIONS:
"ABOUT AS POLITICAL AS A BENGAL TIGER."
LATER IN HIS CAREER WAYNE TALKED ABOUT HIS POLITICAL ORIENTATION:
"I HAVE FOUND A CERTAIN TYPE CALLS HIMSELF A LIBERAL...NOW I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS A LIBERAL. I CAME UP TERRIBLY SURPRISED ONE TIME WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT I WAS A RIGHT-WING, CONSERVATIVE EXTREMIST, WHEN I LISTENED TO EVERYBODY'S POINT OF VIEW THAT I EVER MET, AND THEN DECIDED HOW I SHOULD FEEL. BUT THIS SO-CALLED NEW LIBERAL GROUP, JESUS, THEY NEVER LISTEN TO YOUR POINT OF VIEW..."
ON JANUARY 16, 1974 WAYNE VISITED HARVARD. ONE OF THE QUESTIONS HE WAS ASKED WAS IF PRESIDENT NIXON HAD EVER GIVEN WAYNE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS MOVIES. WAYNES REPLY WAS:
"NO. THEY'VE ALL BEEN SUCCESSFUL."
SPEAKING OF HARVARD: WHEN HARVARD DARED WAYNE TO VISIT THEM FOR THE HASTY PUDDING AWARD, WAYNE REPLIED TO THE INVITE BY WRITING:
"SORRY TO NOTE IN YOUR CHALLENGE THAT THERE IS A WEAKNESS IN YOUR BREEDING. BUT THERE IS A RAY OF HOPE IN THE FACT THAT YOU ARE CONCIOUS OF IT."
A FOOTNOTE TO THE TOPIC OF WAYNES VISIT TO HARVARD.
RECENTLY JAY LENO STATED ON THE TONIGHT SHOW THAT HE HAD THE HONOR OF DRIVING WAYNE WHEN HE ATTENDED THAT HASTY PUDDING AWARD.
JOHN WAYNE WAS NEVER SHORT OF COMMENTS ABOUT HIS ACTING OR MOVIES: HERE ARE A FEW THAT WEREN'T IN THE LAST UPDATE OF THIS PAGE:
"WHEN PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH DO THEIR JOB TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT AND STILL HAVE TIME TO SMILE AND GET ALONG WITH OTHERS, I WANT THEM AROUND"
"IF EVERYTHING ISN'T BLACK AND WHITE, I SAY WHY THE HELL NOT."
WAYNE WAS ONCE ASKED ABOUT WRITING HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. HIS REPLY:
"THOSE WHO LIKE ME ALREADY KNOW ME, AND THOSE WHO DON'T LIKE ME WOULDN'T WANT TO READ ABOUT ME ANYWAY."
ON FAITH WAYNE WAS QUOTED:
"WHEN THE ROAD LOOKS ROUGH AHEAD, REMEMBER THE 'MAN UPSTAIRS' AND THE WORD H-O-P-E. HANG ONTO BOTH AND 'TOUGH IT OUT'."
THE FOLLOWING JOHN WAYNE QUOTES WERE CONTRIBUTED BY BOBBY COPELAND.
Ken Maynard and I became good friends. He was
always obliging to help me out any way he could, so long as I didn't
step on his toes. We went riding together many times, up in the hills
behind the sound stages, and I learned a lot from Ken that I put to use
in many of my pictures.
I don't think John Ford had any kind of respect for me as an actor
until I made RED RIVER for Howard Hawks. I was never quite sure what he
did think of me as an actor. I know now though. Because when I finally
won an Oscar for my role as Rooster Cogburn in TRUE GRIT, Ford shook my
hand and said the award was long overdue me as far as he was concerned.
Right then, I knew he'd respected me as an actor since STAGECOACH, even
though he hadn't let me know it. He later told me his praise earlier,
might have gone to my head and made me conceited, and that was why he'd
never said anything to me, until the right time.
(A note sent to Gene Autry by Wayne) Our trails have crossed and
crisscrossed many a time in our careers, both professionally and social.
I guess you realize that if I could have picked a guitar, you'd
probably still be in Sapula, Oklahoma, tapping that telegraph key, and
those California Angels might be the Anahein Dukes.
Put a man aboard a horse, and right off you've got the makings of
something magnificient. Physical strength, speed where you can feel it,
plus heroism. And the hero, he's big and strong. You pit another strong
man against him, with both their lives at stake, and right there's a
simlicity of conflict you just can't beat.
Any man who'd make an X-rated movie ought to have to take his
daughter to see it.
Nobody liked my acting but the public.
I play John Wayne in every part regardless of the character, and
I've been doing okay, haven't I?
Don't ever for a minute make the mistake of looking down your nose
at westerns. They're art--the good ones, I mean. They deal in life and
sudden death and primitive struggle, and with the basic emotions--love,
hate, and anger--thrown in. We'll have westerns films as long as the
cameras keep turning. The fascination that the Old West has will never
die. And as long as people want to pay money to see me act, I'll keep on
making westerns until the day I die.
JOHN WAYNE WAS WELL KNOWN FOR HIS POLITICAL BELIEFS AND OPINIONS. OFTEN HE MADE POLITICAL COMMENTS THROUGH HUMOR. HERE ARE A FEW OF THOSE COMMENTS.
ON HOW HIS CAREER TURNED OUT, WAYNE SAID:
"IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR FOOTBALL AND THE FACT I GOT MY LEG BROKE AND HAD TO GO INTO THE MOVIES TO EAT, WHY, WHO KNOWS, I MIGHTA TURNED OUT TO BE A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT."
AT THE 1968 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION, WAYNE COMMENTED FLATLY ON HIS POLITICAL AMBITIONS:
"ABOUT AS POLITICAL AS A BENGAL TIGER."
LATER IN HIS CAREER WAYNE TALKED ABOUT HIS POLITICAL ORIENTATION:
"I HAVE FOUND A CERTAIN TYPE CALLS HIMSELF A LIBERAL...NOW I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS A LIBERAL. I CAME UP TERRIBLY SURPRISED ONE TIME WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT I WAS A RIGHT-WING, CONSERVATIVE EXTREMIST, WHEN I LISTENED TO EVERYBODY'S POINT OF VIEW THAT I EVER MET, AND THEN DECIDED HOW I SHOULD FEEL. BUT THIS SO-CALLED NEW LIBERAL GROUP, JESUS, THEY NEVER LISTEN TO YOUR POINT OF VIEW..."
ON JANUARY 16, 1974 WAYNE VISITED HARVARD. ONE OF THE QUESTIONS HE WAS ASKED WAS IF PRESIDENT NIXON HAD EVER GIVEN WAYNE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR HIS MOVIES. WAYNES REPLY WAS:
"NO. THEY'VE ALL BEEN SUCCESSFUL."
SPEAKING OF HARVARD: WHEN HARVARD DARED WAYNE TO VISIT THEM FOR THE HASTY PUDDING AWARD, WAYNE REPLIED TO THE INVITE BY WRITING:
"SORRY TO NOTE IN YOUR CHALLENGE THAT THERE IS A WEAKNESS IN YOUR BREEDING. BUT THERE IS A RAY OF HOPE IN THE FACT THAT YOU ARE CONCIOUS OF IT."
A FOOTNOTE TO THE TOPIC OF WAYNES VISIT TO HARVARD.
RECENTLY JAY LENO STATED ON THE TONIGHT SHOW THAT HE HAD THE HONOR OF DRIVING WAYNE WHEN HE ATTENDED THAT HASTY PUDDING AWARD.
JOHN WAYNE WAS NEVER SHORT OF COMMENTS ABOUT HIS ACTING OR MOVIES: HERE ARE A FEW THAT WEREN'T IN THE LAST UPDATE OF THIS PAGE:
"WHEN PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH DO THEIR JOB TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT AND STILL HAVE TIME TO SMILE AND GET ALONG WITH OTHERS, I WANT THEM AROUND"
"IF EVERYTHING ISN'T BLACK AND WHITE, I SAY WHY THE HELL NOT."
WAYNE WAS ONCE ASKED ABOUT WRITING HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. HIS REPLY:
"THOSE WHO LIKE ME ALREADY KNOW ME, AND THOSE WHO DON'T LIKE ME WOULDN'T WANT TO READ ABOUT ME ANYWAY."
ON FAITH WAYNE WAS QUOTED:
"WHEN THE ROAD LOOKS ROUGH AHEAD, REMEMBER THE 'MAN UPSTAIRS' AND THE WORD H-O-P-E. HANG ONTO BOTH AND 'TOUGH IT OUT'."
Ken Maynard and I became good friends. He was always obliging to help me out any way he could, so long as I didn't step on his toes. We went riding together many times, up in the hills behind the sound stages, and I learned a lot from Ken that I put to use in many of my pictures.
I don't think John Ford had any kind of respect for me as an actor until I made RED RIVER for Howard Hawks. I was never quite sure what he did think of me as an actor. I know now though. Because when I finally won an Oscar for my role as Rooster Cogburn in TRUE GRIT, Ford shook my hand and said the award was long overdue me as far as he was concerned. Right then, I knew he'd respected me as an actor since STAGECOACH, even though he hadn't let me know it. He later told me his praise earlier, might have gone to my head and made me conceited, and that was why he'd never said anything to me, until the right time.
(A note sent to Gene Autry by Wayne) Our trails have crossed and crisscrossed many a time in our careers, both professionally and social. I guess you realize that if I could have picked a guitar, you'd probably still be in Sapula, Oklahoma, tapping that telegraph key, and those California Angels might be the Anahein Dukes.
Put a man aboard a horse, and right off you've got the makings of something magnificient. Physical strength, speed where you can feel it, plus heroism. And the hero, he's big and strong. You pit another strong man against him, with both their lives at stake, and right there's a simlicity of conflict you just can't beat.
Any man who'd make an X-rated movie ought to have to take his daughter to see it.
Nobody liked my acting but the public.
I play John Wayne in every part regardless of the character, and I've been doing okay, haven't I?
Don't ever for a minute make the mistake of looking down your nose at westerns. They're art--the good ones, I mean. They deal in life and sudden death and primitive struggle, and with the basic emotions--love, hate, and anger--thrown in. We'll have westerns films as long as the cameras keep turning. The fascination that the Old West has will never die. And as long as people want to pay money to see me act, I'll keep on making westerns until the day I die.