Fairbanks Quotes

#1. I watched a lot of Douglas Fairbanks movies. He always played the same role with a mustache. Zorro had a mustache. The Musketeer had a mustache. Tarzan had a mustache.

Jean Dujardin

#2. I had no particular desire to be a personality like my father, nor was I equipped to be one. I was determined to be my own man, although having the Fairbanks name did make it easier to get into an office to see someone.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#3. Born in the silent era, with the first ceremony hosted by Douglas Fairbanks at the Roosevelt Hotel, the Oscars are a tradition in a business that doesn't have much of it, and the biggest spectacle in a business that's often nothing but.

Steve Erickson

#4. In my grammar school years back in the 1920s I used my ten-cents-a-week allowance for Saturday matinees of Douglas Fairbanks movies. All that swashbuckling and leaping about in the midst of the sails of ships!

Beverly Cleary

#5. Sometimes I feel if I was young again, I would wrap a bandana around my head like Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and I would become a pirate of the Web. And I would go around stealing poems and assembling into one spot like a treasure cave.

Clive James

#6. But then, six months ago, my dad hauled me with him to this shaddy town in Alaska. Seward Peninsula, just below Arctic Circle? And then, middle of May - we flew to Fairbanks on a prop plane, and then we came here.

Donna Tartt

#7. Die? That is the last thing I shall do!

Douglas Fairbanks

#8. I was a shy, awkward sort of a boy and my father's frequent absences from home, along with my hero worship for him, made me even shyer.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#9. In my day, the only people who achieved real independence were my father, Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin, who, with D. W. Griffith, formed United Artists. Other than that, everybody belonged to the big studios. They had no say in their own careers.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#10. I will never forget the pleasure and instruction I derived from working with a true master of his art, such as Edward G. Robinson was - and is. Surely his record for versatility, studied characterization - ranging from modern colloquial to the classics - and artistic integrity is unsurpassed.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#11. In taking stock of ourselves, we should not forget that fear plays a large part in the drama of failure. That is the first thing to be dropped. Fear is a mental deficiency susceptible of correction, if taken in hand before it gains an ascendency over us. Fear comes with the thought of failure.

Douglas Fairbanks

#12. I never kissed my father until he was on his death bed.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#13. I never tried to emulate my father. Anyone trying to do that would be a second-rate carbon copy.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#14. Curiously enough, I was one of the first to have some say in Hollywood. By sheer accident, I had four successes in a row in the early 30's and, although I was still in my 20's, I demanded and received approval of cast, story and director. I don't know how I got away with it, but I did!

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#15. Books are the safest and greatest mind-altering substances in the world. But be safe; don't read and drive.

H.E. Fairbanks

#16. Self-depreciation is a disease. Once it gets a hold on us - good-bye!

Douglas Fairbanks

#17. What has always been at the heart of film making was the value of a script. It was really the writer who could make or break a film. But as we all know, the writer has always been at the bottom of the creative heap.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#18. The man that's out to do something has to keep in high gear all the time.

Douglas Fairbanks

#19. Real laughter is spontaneous. Like water from the spring it bubbles forth a creation of mingled action and spontaneity - two magic potions in themselves - the very essence of laughter - the unrestrained emotion within us!

Douglas Fairbanks

#20. The man who puts life into an idea is acclaimed a genius, because he does the right thing at the right time. Therein lies the difference between the genius and a commonplace man.

Douglas Fairbanks

#21. Indeed it is possible to stand with one foot on the inevitable 'banana peel' of life with both eyes peering into the Great Beyond, and still be happy, comfortable, and serene - if we will even so much as smile.

Douglas Fairbanks

#22. I am not a socialite, though I seem to have got the reputation for being one. I have some very good friends who happen to be in so-called Society; but Society as such is a bore and holds no fascination for me.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#23. I was only saying to the Queen the other day how I hate name dropping.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#24. People are divided into two classes - those who profit by experience and those who do not. The unfortunate part of it all is that the latter class is by far the larger of the two.

Douglas Fairbanks

#25. I've often accused my grandchildren of never having seen one of my films.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#26. United States military leader General Norman Schwarzkopf stated, "Leaders need two things - character and strategy. If you can do only one, drop strategy.

E. LeBron Fairbanks

#27. The greatest compliments I've ever received were complaints from readers that I made them stay up all night reading.

H.E. Fairbanks

#28. There is one thing in this good old world that is positively sure - happiness is for all who strive to be happy - and those who laugh are happy. Everybody is eligible - you - me - the other fellow. Happiness is fundamentally a state of mind - not a state of body.

Douglas Fairbanks

#29. The Joan Crawford that I've heard about in 'Mommie Dearest' is not the Joan Crawford I knew back when.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

#30. Good Night Sweet Prince and a flight of angels sing to thy rest.

Douglas Fairbanks