Jean Claude Van Quotes & Sayings

I think the action movies in the 80s and 90s were different. It was a testosterone age. Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Sylvester Stallone - they fuelled my childhood. But now I don't think I'd like to do just action, I don't enjoy that. — Channing Tatum

A cookie has no soul, it's just a cookie. But before it was milk and eggs. And in eggs there's the potential for life. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

But on average, I go to the gym about four or five times a week. Today, I'm so experienced in training - I'm actually listening to my body now. My body needs freedom. When I train I create serenity and I produce oxygen in my blood. It helps me to think better and relax. By training, you accentuate the problem. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

You know, I looked at my face in the mirror this morning, and I like being old. My face has more content and when I train in the gym now, I am not training to be strong or handsome - just better than I was yesterday. These days the race is just against myself. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

My wife is not my best sexual partner, but she's good with the housework. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

When I was 24, I was full of life. I was that ham who wanted to be famous, a movie star, all that stuff. I think it's cool. But it was not what I was searching for, really. It was more a delusion. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Everybody understands a slap in the face. In Japan, Belgium, or America, a punch is a punch. Comedy will be different in Europe or America or Japan, so my movies are very international. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

As a kid, I was heavily into martial arts and wanted to be the next Jean-Claude Van Damme. — Chris Daughtry

I can pretty much say that because of Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme, that's why I do what I do today. — Scott Adkins

When I go on location, we have a schedule. And when you have a schedule, you know when you're not working, so I train very well on location. But I also train three or four times a week at home, but today I train differently than before. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

All I wanted to do was to become famous, but then I found out that it was nothing special. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Life is short. I'm 47 years old. I've got 10 years to go where I can be the best I can be. I want those 10 years to be precious, not like before, cranking two or three movies a year. I've made a ton of movies in my life, but so what? — Jean-Claude Van Damme

According to statistics, one person out of five is disturbed. If there are four people around you who seem normal, that's not good. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I'm one of the most sensitive human beings on Earth - and I know it. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I now truly believe it is impossible for me to make a bad movie. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I love karate, it's like a bible to me. But deep inside I'm so I mean, I'm so sensitive. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

When you finish a film, if you believed in your character, you're empty. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Because no matter what you say in life, the truth will always be the truth. You know when someone is telling the truth, you look in the eyes. I have a tendency to believe people. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I am the Fred Astaire of karate. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

You need at least six or seven years to understand the philosophy and concentration of karate to know to clean your spirit of everything and dedicate your mind and body to the sport. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

You just have to take a little salt, and since I'm doing that it's, like, BOOM! In one week, I felt it kick in. All the commotion around me, all the water around me, moving left and right around me, became like a lake. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

What is a movie star? It is an illusion. It was everything I ever wanted to be, but it became a kind of shell, non? It was what made me famous and got me women. But it wasn't real. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Your body has enough weight for you to be in perfect condition just working against yourself. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

If a product is more expensive than another one and more sustainable in ecology, consumers will not buy it. We're in a very sharp competitive market. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

My time of martial arts was traditional. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

You can create the perfect triceps by just pushing yourself off your wall. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

In the past, I was working out too heavy. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I've had my ups and downs. My fair share of bumpy roads and heavy winds. That's what made me what I am today. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I'm not a movie star. I'm a brand name. Van Damme is like Levi's. I go on vacation, and everywhere I go, people love me for my name, not for my movies. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I'm a big traveler these days. I was in Hong Kong. I live there. I was just in Belgium with my parents and now I'm on my way to North America. You will find me all over. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

If you phone a psychic and she doesn't answer the phone before it rings, hang up. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

In the film industry, we tend to pick up where others have left off, and I'd like to think the influences I picked up from Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme are visible in my work. — Scott Adkins

What really helps a guy to become an action hero today is the directing of the movie. All those fast cuts. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I train, for me, very smartly. I don't train heavy, I do a lot of isometrics. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I liked actions movies. Jean-Claude Van Damme was a major influence on me at that point in my life. — Seth Rogen

..When I walk across my living room from my chimney to my window, it takes me 10 seconds, but for a bird it takes one second, and for oxygen zero seconds! — Jean-Claude Van Damme

In an action film you act in the action. If it's a dramatic film you act in the drama. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Karate's a very boring sport, but when you know the technique you can go further and further. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I am fascinated by air. If you remove the air from the sky, all the birds would fall to the ground. And all the planes, too. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

You have to believe what you say, and if you believe what you are saying, then acting is easy. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I broke two knuckles in my right hand when I gave Jean-Claude Van Damme an attitude adjustment. I got nothing except a medical bill. — Chuck Zito

We are here to condemn the Palestinian occupation of the territories, but also to condemn the recent racist attack in France, against both Jews and Arabs. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

It's time for me to do things I like so I will be happy, my wife will be happy, my friends will be happy. I just want to do something I'm proud of. It's time for me to change. I could sign with a company for 10 movies and I'm the king of video and so what? — Jean-Claude Van Damme

It looks good when you see someone kicking at the age of 51 with no double. It's kinda cool for people to know that past 50 we can keep flexible. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I came back to my original wife. I came back to her after I made a few boo-boos in my life. Coming back to her was good for me, good for her and good for the children. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Believe me - I've done very good stuff and very crazy stuff, and I don't regret the crazy stuff. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I'm lucky, because I started action movies at the age of 25. Now I'm 47, and I'm still kicking like a mule, and I'm as flexible as before. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I'm not complaining about doing 20-hour days. It's a joy to be able to work on yet another film. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I'm fast, why? Because I eat vegetables. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I don't want to be buried in the ground, rotting, with all those worms. What I would love is to have my body dropped where you have those big icebergs and the water is so cold and pure, to be eaten by a polar bear or a seal or an otter. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

My body looks like 30 but my face looks like 50. But I cannot walk bare-chested in the streets. I like to do these movies to challenge myself physically. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

What I promise to my actors, and to my director, is to give them the salary and everything they need. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I was a big fan of Jean-Claude Van-Damme growing up, and I always wanted to be a martial artist 'cause of him. — Georges St-Pierre

I came to America with a dream and I made it. The dream became reality. America is built for success. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

A pair of legs engineered to defy the laws of physics and a mindset to master the most epic of splits. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I love challenges. If you don't have any and can do whatever you want. Then it's probably time to die. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

My bedroom was plastered with pictures of Van Damme. My mother was worried about me. Most teenage boys have half-naked women on their walls, and I had Jean-Claude. — Scott Adkins

At the very last moment, just before its lips claimed hers, its grip on her face relaxed slightly and she did the only thing she could think of: She head-butted it. Snapped her head back, then forward again, and bashed it square in the face as hard as she could. So hard, in fact, that it made her woozy and gave her an instant migraine, making her wonder how Jean-Claude Van Damme always managed to coolly continue fighting after such a stunt. Obviously, movies lied. — Karen Marie Moning

I don't have a bad relationship. I'm 48 years old. I think life is too short for that. To me, life is ... you open the shutters, you see the dogs outside, you look left, you look right, in, what, a second and a half? And that's a life. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

There are some movie stars in Hollywood that are so scared, they also tell the reporter that they are recording them, in case there is something wrong with what they wrote about them in the papers. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I like structure - like driving: go past the school on the street, stay on the right side, no hitting the car, go in right, you'll see a big church, stop and take a left, and you'll have it. By doing this I'm giving a structure of life, a path of light, and showing what happens between me and me, which is something very beautiful. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Air is beautiful, yet you cannot see it. It's soft, yet you cannot touch it. Air is a little like my brain. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I'm as good as Jean-Claude Van Damme when it comes to martial arts. Sounding a little cocky aren't I — Talisa Soto

..If you work with a jackhammer during an earthquake, stop, otherwise you are working for nothing. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

I've become 40, my audience is partly the same age. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

God gave me a great body and it's my duty to take care of my physical temple. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

Showing myself nude from behind doesn't pose any problems, but from the front that's another story. I don't want to lose all my fans! — Jean-Claude Van Damme

My last fight was more than 20 years ago. I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover. If somebody's going to speak bad about me, I will walk away. But if a guy like Steven Seagal slaps me once, I will slap him twice as hard. Life is full of violence. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

You can consider this carved in stone: I rule out becoming Herman Van Rompuy's successor. — Jean-Claude Juncker

A man may have the best of wealth, cars and fame. But there is nothing more precious in life that he will get than a woman's heart. — Jean-Claude Van Damme

The action films I will make in the future will be more believable and character-based. I am now on my second cycle of fame, and I want to make films that smell real and are truthful. — Jean-Claude Van Damme