James Cagney Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
-
“Perhaps people, and kids especially, are spoiled today, because all the kids today have cars, it seems. When I was young you were lucky to have a bike.”
-- James Cagney -
“My father was totally Irish, and so I went to Ireland once. I found it to be very much like New York, for it was a beautiful country, and both the women and men were good-looking.”
-- James Cagney -
“Learn your lines… plant your feet… look the other actor in the eye… say the words… mean them.”
-- James Cagney -
“Outside of my family, the prime concern of my life has been nature and its order, and how we have been savagely altering that order.”
-- James Cagney -
“Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.”
-- James Cagney -
“Find your mark, look the other fellow in the eye, and tell the truth.”
-- James Cagney -
“Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.”
-- James Cagney -
“You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them... I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can.”
-- James Cagney -
“You know, the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tired to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer, it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.”
-- James Cagney -
“I never had the slightest difficulty with a fellow actor. Not until One, Two, Three. In that picture, Horst Buchholz tried all sorts of scene-stealing didoes. I came close to knocking him on his ass.”
-- James Cagney -
“There's not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean everything you say.”
-- James Cagney -
“I`m sick of carrying guns and beating up women.”
-- James Cagney -
“My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those misfortunes. I have an idea that the Irish possess a built-in don't-give-a-damn that helps them through all the stress.”
-- James Cagney -
“Though I soon became typecast in Hollywood as a gangster and hoodlum, I was originally a dancer, an Irish hoofer, trained in vaudeville tap dance. I always leapt at the opportunity to dance in films later on.”
-- James Cagney -
“I got a part as a chorus girl in a show called Every Sailor and I had fun doing it. Mother didn't really approve of it, through.”
-- James Cagney
