Quotes from Charlton Heston

I like portraying heroes of antiquity whose values were grander and more spectacular than those of today.

To be an actor you need four things: energy, concentration, a lot of luck and, of course, good roles.

Any gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a decent person is no threat to anybody — except bad people.

Kids are the most conventional people in the world. It is more important than anything else for them to conform, and I was a kind of oddball. I was driven into being independent. I was very, very unhappy.

The trouble with movies as a business is that it's an art, and the trouble with movies as art is that it's a business.

A war put off is not a war avoided.

As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.

Celebrity is a corrosive condition for the soul. I have tried to restrain its inroads on me, but there are odd corners of my character that have been harmed

Gregory Peck was one of those few great actors of generosity, humor, toughness and spirit. From our fight scene in The Big Country (1958) to his willingness to stand up for what he believed personally, Gregory Peck faced life's challenges with great vigor and courage.

Mainstream America is depending on you - counting on you - to draw your sword and fight for them. These people have precious little time or resources to battle misguided Cinderella attitudes, the fringe propaganda of the homosexual coalition, the feminists who preach that it's a divine duty for women to hate men, blacks who raise a militant fist with one hand, while they seek preference with the other.

Society mends its wounds. And that's invariably true in all the tragedies, in the comedies as well. And certainly in the histories.

You could say that the paparazzi and the tabloids are sort of the assault weapons of the First Amendment. They're ugly, a lot of people don't like them, but they're protected by the First Amendment — just as assault weapons

My dad always said he wanted to be remembered for his body of work, and he's made more than 75 pictures, some good, some bad, and they will be his legacy to the world of acting.

I always work on the theory that the audience will believe you best if you believe yourself.

What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people.

Undeniably the American art form, too. And yet more and more, we see films made that diminish the American experience and example. And sometimes trash it completely.

Well, we have certainly produced great art before we did this. In my view, there are any number of areas of government which tax money should not be spent.

Film is the only art form whose raw materials are so horrendously expensive that the artist cannot afford to buy them for himself.

The big studio era is from the coming of sound until 1950, until I came in... I came in at a crux in film, which was the end of the studio era and the rise of filmmaking.

I always thought of myself as inadequate. Kids of divorced parents always feel that way - that, on some subconscious level, they're responsible.

Political correctness is tyranny with manners.