I'm still watching all those old-timers really going along, and I'm enjoying it so much, not just looking at the pictures, but looking at the acting. Paul Muni. Beautiful character. Edward G. Robinson. Jimmy Cagney. All those old boys. You don't find those characters anymore.

Ernest Borgnine

Categorized in : Boys Character Beautiful

Everything I do has a moral to it.

Ernest Borgnine

moral

It's not your word that matters, it's who you give it too.

Ernest Borgnine

matter giving

Fathers and mothers are just people, which means they make mistakes. Don't hold that against them. Whatever flaws they may have, they created you in a moment of love, and are among the few who knew you when. When they're gone, there won't be anyone to take their place.

Ernest Borgnine

mother mistake father

It was my mom who told me, "Ernie, if you make even one person happy with your smile or a funny thing you did every day, you'll have accomplished a great deal." And that's all I've ever tried to do.

Ernest Borgnine

funny-things smile mom

Writers used to make such wonderful pictures without all that swearing, all that cursing. And now it seems that you can't say three words without cursing. And I don't think that's right.

Ernest Borgnine

three wonderful thinking

You get kicked around long enough, you become a professor of pain.

Ernest Borgnine

pain enough long

If John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave!

Ernest Borgnine

wayne rolling alive

I'm what you call a Depression sailor.

Ernest Borgnine

sailor depression

There's an awful lot to be desired. I've gone to places where people say to me, "What's your technique?" Technique? What the hell technique is there to acting? We're acting because even with my voice I'm giving what I think is what I want to say.

Ernest Borgnine

giving people thinking

I got a damn good mind to write a book about all the feelings that I have inside about all these things that happened in our life that we're making happen and letting it happen when it shouldn't be happening.

Ernest Borgnine

feelings writing book

A lot of people forget that today. They come to the point where you walk on a set and the first thing you know you're looking at the sound man and you're saying to yourself, "How the hell can they get any sound when nobody is talking!" They get all mumbly. You can't make out what they're saying! And you're 6 feet away from them! Whereas in the old-time movies, you hear them, you understand every word they're saying, and you didn't have to put on your loudspeaker.

Ernest Borgnine

today men people

This is the kind of upbringing we had instead of sitting in front of a damn television set all day long and never answering to anybody else unless somebody spoke up from a television set. It's an altogether different way of living today that you wonder how it really affects the family? I know how it affects the family because I have my own son who has his children and also my daughter. It's one of those things. Everybody eats in their own way and off they go. You know? It's not family oriented anymore."

Ernest Borgnine

daughter children son

Gary Cooper - the greatest listener in the world! And he used to answer in kind, which is wonderful because you don't see that anymore. People don't listen. They really don't.

Ernest Borgnine

kind people world

I don't care whether a role is 10 minutes long or two hours. And I don't care whether my name is up there on top, either. Matter of fact, I'd rather have someone else get top billing; then if the picture bombs, he gets the blame, not me.

Ernest Borgnine

names two long

Every time I step in front of a camera I feel young again. I really do. It keeps your mind active and it keeps you going.

Ernest Borgnine

cameras mind steps

I wouldn't trade those 10 years for anything. The Navy taught me a lot of things. It molded me as a man, and I made a lot of wonderful friends.

Ernest Borgnine

wonderful-friends men years

I don't chart out the life histories of the people I play. If I did, I'd be in trouble. I work with my heart and my head, and naturally emotions follow.

Ernest Borgnine

play heart people

The Navy has changed a great deal. Not that the officers of my day were bad, because I served under a lot of good officers, believe me. But there were a few bad ones, too.

Ernest Borgnine

navy great-day believe

I call myself a character actor all my life. I've done a certain amount as a leading man, but character actors in my estimation - it's a lost art these days.

Ernest Borgnine

character men art

Today's work, I don't know it just doesn't make sense, a lot of it. It's just guns and sex and more guns and more sex. You say to yourself, when the hell are you gonna get down to the nitty-gritty and do something good so people can be entertained? I mean if they call this entertainment.

Ernest Borgnine

gun mean people