Lee Ermey Quotes

#1. I've never had to spend any time in the VA hospital, so I really can't speak for those guys.

R. Lee Ermey

#2. I got space from Travis Air Force Base, went back to the Philippine Islands and made it a point to meet the only American casting director in the Philippines. I was off and running.

R. Lee Ermey

#3. A day without blood is like a day without sunshine!

R. Lee Ermey

#4. America's trying to do the best for its veterans.

R. Lee Ermey

#5. The drill instructor must have total and complete control. Mindless obedience is what he's after.

R. Lee Ermey

#6. Communications are better now than in my Vietnam days.

R. Lee Ermey

#7. In order to be a good actor, I'm a firm believer that you need to bring something to the table.

R. Lee Ermey

#8. That's all I cared about too, was getting it right.

R. Lee Ermey

#9. I was stationed at a marine recruit depot in San Diego from 1965 to 1967.

R. Lee Ermey

#10. Drill instructors worked seven days a week, fifteen to seventeen hours a day in many cases, with no time off in between platoons.

R. Lee Ermey

#11. For me, it's an honor for the military to ask me to go to Iraq, Afghanistan, or GITMO. I'm happy to go.

R. Lee Ermey

#12. We had times in '66 and '67 when we would pick up a platoon of privates out of the receiving barracks the week before we even graduated the platoon that we were on!

R. Lee Ermey

#13. Back in those days intimidation was the greatest tool the drill instructor had. Without that tool, he would not have had control.

R. Lee Ermey

#14. Kubrick ate it up. He loved it. He just let me go crazy.

R. Lee Ermey

#15. I spend a lot of time with my characters.

R. Lee Ermey

#16. What is your major malfunction?

R. Lee Ermey

#17. I don't have any respect at all for the scum-bags who went to Canada to avoid the draft or to avoid doing their fair share.

R. Lee Ermey

#18. The bad news motivated the drill instructors that much more.

R. Lee Ermey

#19. Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair.

R. Lee Ermey

#20. I disagree with a lot of those changes, however at the end of the day - I go down to recruit graduation at least once or twice a year.

R. Lee Ermey

#21. I go the VA Hospital when I have a problem and the doctor jumps on me.

R. Lee Ermey

#22. When you try to find funding for a VVA function, it doesn't seem like it's any trouble at all. People come out of the woodwork with their money to help out because we went over and fought a war.

R. Lee Ermey

#23. This is for fighting, this is for fun.

R. Lee Ermey

#24. You'd be surprised how many kids and young people come to the website and send me email that they are actually going into the Marine Corp because of something that I said or did.

R. Lee Ermey

#25. There's a lot of whiners in every crowd.

R. Lee Ermey

#26. I'm never, like I say, I'm never happy, I'm never satisfied, it's never good enough.

R. Lee Ermey

#27. I honestly do feel that I am a role model for young people.

R. Lee Ermey

#28. There have been a lot of changes in recruit training in the past twenty years.

R. Lee Ermey

#29. The best part about the movie, and everybody seems to rave about it, is the boot camp part.

R. Lee Ermey

#30. I play well with everybody.

R. Lee Ermey

#31. I don't have to be concerned about everybody else's character.

R. Lee Ermey

#32. Playing the good guy is tough because you know as well as I do, in real life, you have to watch your P's and Q's and conduct yourself in a respectable manner if you expect to have friends.

R. Lee Ermey

#33. I hate to hear 'Less is more.' It's a crock of crap.

R. Lee Ermey

#34. I try to get over to Iraq and Afghanistan as much as I can.

R. Lee Ermey

#35. Everybody respects the Vietnam Veterans of America.

R. Lee Ermey

#36. Back in the old Corp, we weren't training those privates to infiltrate into the peacetime Marine Corp. We were training those privates to go to Vietnam.

R. Lee Ermey

#37. It's been a pretty fun ride, to tell you the truth.

R. Lee Ermey

#38. Even though I disagree with many of the changes, when I see the privates graduate at the end of the day, when they walk off that drill field at the end of the ceremony, they are still fine privates; outstanding, well motivated privates.

R. Lee Ermey

#39. Kubrick's films have life - they just never die.

R. Lee Ermey

#40. Without discipline, there is no Marine Corps.

R. Lee Ermey

#41. It's my firm conviction that when Uncle Sam calls, by God we go, and we do the best that we can.

R. Lee Ermey

#42. I always love to come to Austin.

R. Lee Ermey

#43. There was a huge, tremendous amount of disabled veterans and the Veteran's Administration just wasn't geared up for it. I know for a fact that it's getting better and better.

R. Lee Ermey

#44. I firmly believe that you live and learn, and if you don't learn from past mistakes, then you need to be drug out and shot.

R. Lee Ermey

#45. I got to write most of everything I said.

R. Lee Ermey

#46. The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.

R. Lee Ermey

#47. Every character I've ever played, I always try to take him right to the edge and not allow him to fall over, but directors have a tendency to pull me back a little bit.

R. Lee Ermey