James Cagney Quotes

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.

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.

You dirty, double-crossing rat.

Learn your lines… plant your feet… look the other actor in the eye… say the words… mean them.

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.

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.

I never said, ‘MMMmmm, you dirty rat!

New Orleans is 5 feet below sea level, which means that holes dug in the ground immediately fill with water. Coffins were punctured and sunk with weights, which didn’t stop them from floating up out of the cemeteries and down the streets of the French Quarter on stormy nights. The solution was to bury people above ground, in what are called vaults.

Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.

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.

The Postman Always RingsTwice.

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.