Kevin Costner

I don't think I ever take huge risks, though I'm not scared of doing so.

I'm glad movies aren't going to please everybody, they can't. But what they have to be is recognisable. I don't equate myself with a master painter, but I think you can recognise my films.

I think these movies are as much for people of that time as for people who weren't born. For people who weren't born, they see how leaders must act under a crisis situation, not trying to be re-elected or not trying to check polls, that they go from their gut check.

We all have that burning question about what happens if we lose somebody we love, especially if we lose them tragically. We wonder what fear was going on, we wonder if we could have reached out and touched them, held their hand, looked in their eyes, been there.

I am not a cynic.

When I make a film I'm away from home for two to three months. So I want my kids to look at my films one day and say, I love his movies, I love his choices-because he loved them.

I'm proud of all the movies I've made. They're not sequels, they're not franchises. And the reason I pick my films carefully is that I don't want to spit on my life. I like to think of myself as more than that.

I don't think I'd have been as good as Bruce was. He was a better JFK than I would have been.

I think there are good men and women in all decades. We've grown cynical. And look at what we do to all our heroes: Churchill, FDR, Kennedy, they all had affairs. But heroic things happen every day.

Lincoln was the greatest speaker and he was ridiculed for how he looked, you know?

Money isn't a major motivating force in my life. Nor is my profession. There are other things that I care more about than being an actor.

I'm only interested in being a good actor and in being remembered for my best films, not for the way I look. But it seems inevitable in this line of work that I have to care about the way I look without getting obsessed about it.

I haven't tried to buffer myself. I like rolling the dice.

What are we blaming? Is this Vietnam? We made a movie, it didn't make much money. I'm gonna be really happy if somebody watches it in 10 years' time and really enjoys it.

One person doesn't have to shoulder all the responsibility for why a film does or doesn't do well.

If it's going to be wrecked, I want to make sure I wreck it.

I enjoy sports. I get a real joy from playing sports but I don't look for those movies. Oliver Stone wanted to know if I would do Any Given Sunday and it just didn't appeal to me.

In America, politicians do whatever to get re-elected, and a lot of decisions that were being made at that time by Kennedy were certain not to get him re-elected.

Failure doesn't kill you... it increases your desire to make something happen.

If you think of 'Liberty Valance' or 'The Searchers,' there are moments in there that you'll never, ever forget... And it does not matter what century you are from.

I think there's true drama in the formation of everything that we know and are standing on the shoulders of.

When I do a Western, I often wonder what I would have really done in that situation.

I want to live forever, and I know I won't. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm only afraid of one thing: not being able to raise my kids.

If you're willing to tell somebody that you love them, are you also willing to say you're sorry? You need to, even when you think you're in the right.

I'm in a position where whatever I do, I can get my head handed to me. I'm in a position to fail because there is a whole group of people out there who want me to fail. It's a weird vibe.

If you're going to tear down a hero, you should never forget that you're tearing down someone else's hero. You're tearing down somebody else's son. You might have to face her one day.

You have to try to dismiss the loudness of cynicism. It's certainly going to come.

I don't have a seller's remorse about how I've lived.

I've always known that I'm a little out of vogue.

I was sucked into this vortex of a very conservative upbringing.

You're this rat in the American maze, working your way towards the cheese, which is a job.

I like American history.

I am a really writer-oriented actor.

When I read Thirteen Days I was moved by it. It was just a great time for the world, in terms of looking back in history and seeing how we got ourselves into trouble and how we got ourselves out of trouble.

Being a celebrity is probably the closest to being a beautiful woman as you can get.

I'm getting those familiar feelings, and I'm just going to enjoy the process of getting to know someone again.

I don't give up. I'm a plodder. People come and go, but I stay the course.

I stand up for what I believe. I don't know if it's always paid off for me, because I've been ridiculed and humiliated.

You just do the things that you love and see if other people can like them too.

I had a difficult time hearing my own inner voice about what I wanted to be in this life, because there were all these perfect examples of what a man actually does. The notion is that he goes to college, gets married and provides. That's what a man does.

You have to decide if you're going to wilt like a daisy or if you're just going to go forward and live the life that you've been granted.

There's real drama in performing live. You never know how it's going to be.

When I see my children, and when I see the people who value me, I know how lucky I am.

I know I have this level of celebrity, of fame, international, national, whatever you want to call it, but it's a pretty surreal thing to think sometimes that you're in the middle of another famous person's life and you think to yourself, 'How the hell did I get famous? What is this some weird club that we're in?'

Field of Dreams is probably our generation's It's A Wonderful Life.

I'm a pretty convenient foil for a lot of people.

I try to please myself. I don't try to anticipate what people want to see.

I've been around where I knew other actors were going to steal the scene, and I don't compete with them.

President Kennedy was willing to go to war. He was not a coward. The man had been in war and so had Ken O'Donnell. He was ready to protect this nation, but he was not ready for a military solution just because it was being rammed down his throat.

I'm a big fan of dreams. Unfortunately, dreams are our first casualty in life - people seem to give them up, quicker than anything, for a 'reality.'