Burt Reynolds (1936-2018) was highly quotable during a career in showbiz that lasted six-decades. He could be outrageous, introspective, wisecracking and thoughtful. He could be politically incorrect and then show you his deep broad-mindedness. Here are a few more Reynolds quotes. The first one was one of his last:
“I don’t know why I think this, but maybe I’ve got my best work ahead. Maybe I’ll be putting my teeth in the glass, and maybe it will be a very different kind of role, but I want to do something where I’m not driving a car or a truck, where it’s real. Something that people wouldn’t expect me to do. Probably a man in search of himself. But we’re always searching for ourselves anyway.”
On posing naked in Cosmopolitan in 1972:
“I was totally drunk. But I mean, how else are you going to do that? Unless you are Lauren Hutton. And I don’t think she was ever sloshed. She was just free. I have a problem with flinging all my clothes off. Where is the bearskin? He’s running through the woods. He’s going, ‘You know, I knew him when he was big.'”
“All of the younger actors keep coming up to me and asking me where all of the land mines are because they know I’ve stepped on them all.”
“I don’t know why I was so stupid to break up with Sally Field. Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up.”
“It’s a tough business. Very tough. But I always tried to leave a good impression wherever we shot, and I didn’t leave any buildings burning or anything. And I’ve had a good time through it all.”
“I didn’t like things about the South, I hated it, I really did. It still isn’t right, it won’t ever be right in our lifetime. I really did think things would have progressed by now. I certainly thought we would have a lot more black directors, writers, producers.”
“Marriage is about the most expensive way for the average man to get his laundry done.”
“‘Id rather be shot in the leg than watch an Ingmar Bergman picture.”
“I think Deliverance challenged a lot of men’s minds about their own manhood, about friendship, and about rape, as far as throwing that word around. They saw that picture and suddenly it shook them up. They realized that it’s not something to laugh about.”
