Steve McQueen Quotes & Sayings

I believe in me. I'm a little screwed up, but I'm beautiful — Steve McQueen

I've got a feeling I'm leaving stardom behind, you know. I'm gradually becoming more of a filmmaker, acquiring a different kind of dignity from that which you achieve in acting. After all, I'm no matinee idol, and I'm getting older. I don't think I can be doing my kind of thing in the seventies; I want to be on more of the creative side of business. — Steve McQueen

I think as an actor, you're more like a dancer, and you have to use your body. I don't understand all these questions about nudity. It's a nonsense. He's an actor, an artist, so get on with it. — Steve McQueen

Stardom equals freedom. It's the only equation that matters. — Steve McQueen

When I believe in something, I fight like hell for it. — Steve McQueen

I have difficulty putting words in peoples' mouths. The best dialogue is very, very thin dialogue; you let people improvise and then basically you record what they've improvised and then write it down. — Steve McQueen

The best thing about making films is the time spent making them. When I see works that I've made, I always think what a great time I had making them. The films remind me of that time. — Steve McQueen

Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live, — Steve McQueen

I worked hard, and if you work hard you get the goodies. — Steve McQueen

Every time I start thinking the world is all bad, then I start seeing people out there having a good time on motorcycles. It makes me take another look. — Steve McQueen

Sometimes you have to bend with the breeze or you break. — Steve McQueen

I deal with certain things in my work because of who I am. I make work in order to make people think. — Steve McQueen

When I walk out into the street or go to the toilet, I don't think of myself as being black. Of course, other people think of me as black when I walk into a pub. Obviously being black is a part of me. — Steve McQueen

People try to contain things by putting them into categories. I don't. — Steve McQueen

I liked being in the Marines. They gave me discipline I could live with. By the time I got out, I was able to cope with things on a more realistic level. — Steve McQueen

Often the best way to relax is just to go back to work. — Steve McQueen

Anything that doesn't make sense, I don't want to give too much of my brain to. — Steve McQueen

The camera movement should be like a cat jumping onto a table - with just enough amount of effort and that's it. That's enough. — Steve McQueen

Sometimes you have to say goodbye to the things you know and hello to the things you dont. — Steve McQueen

When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting. — Steve McQueen

Ill never be as good an actor as I want to be ... but I'll be good. — Steve McQueen

I always feel I'm an amateur. I don't most of the time know what I'm doing. — Steve McQueen

When I did 'The Great Escape,' I kept thinking, 'If they were making a movie of my life, that's what they'd call it - the great escape.' — Steve McQueen

I live for myself and answer to nobody — Steve McQueen

You see, I don't believe in that grabbin' and grabbin' and stuffin yourself and not givin' anythin' or puttin' it back. — Steve McQueen

When a horse learns to buy martinis, I'll learn to like horses. — Steve McQueen

I'm not a great actor - let's face it. I don't have a great deal of scope. There are certain things I can do, but when I'm bad, I stink. There's something about my shaggy dog eyes that makes people think I'm good. I'm not all that good. — Steve McQueen

If I hadn't made it as an actor, I might have wound up a hood ... — Steve McQueen

I'm not sure that acting is something for a grown man to be doing. — Steve McQueen

I want people to do what they want to do because when they feel comfortable it seems to translate better on screen. It is when you put people in a straitjacket that it doesn't seem to translate very well at all. The individuals I work with are usually people I know. — Steve McQueen

Racing is life. Everything else is just waiting. — Steve McQueen

There is no right or wrong angle for something. The idea of putting the camera in an unfamiliar position is simply to do with film language. Sometimes it is spectacular, sometimes it is ugly, sometimes it is uninteresting. — Steve McQueen

One of the things that make motorcycling so great is because it never fails to give you a feeling of freedom and adventure. — Steve McQueen

The person is being confrontational. — Steve McQueen

I really don't like to act. At the beginning, back in '51, I had to force myself to stick with it. I was real uncomfortable, real uncomfortable. — Steve McQueen

I find it difficult to breathe when l'm in the space. There seems to be no oxygen. I want to put people into a situation where they're sensitive to themselves watching the piece. — Steve McQueen

Nobody trusts anyone, or why did they put tilt on a pinball machine ... — Steve McQueen

Stardom equals financial success and financial success equals security. I've spent too much of my life feeling insecure. I still have nightmares about being poor, of everything I own just vanishing away. Stardom means that can't happen. — Steve McQueen

I don't like to put too much effort into things. I find that once you get involved with special effects it is no longer about what is happening in front of the camera and I really want to concentrate on what is happening in front of the camera, like the man apparently peeing on the surface of the screen. — Steve McQueen

I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth. — Steve McQueen