Sam Elliott

I've been married one time and I have one daughter, who I love more than anyone in the world. And that's where my world is.

Nobody sets out to make a bad film - I shouldn't say 'nobody.' Some people certainly don't care.

I was never afraid of hard work.

I really never had any thought about being a legitimate actor, like a stage performer. I wanted to make movies. I wanted to do television and make movies.

I was in the cement end of the construction business, as a laborer. I was pouring concrete, and stripping forms off of set concrete, and pulling nails, and stacking plywood, and doing that kind of thing. I was in peak condition in those days.

My dad worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service, and he worked for the Department of Interior, you know, like the federal government. And consequently, I was outdoors a lot in my lifetime.

My western heritage runs deep.

It seemed like whenever a Western was going to get made, it came my way.

My security comes from the fact that I've never done a job for money.

I think the people that most often cross a line are comedians. I think they relish that, and take pride in that on some level - at least, from what little I've seen and understand about people that do stand-up.

It's never going to get better than working opposite an actor like Jeff Bridges. That's as good as it gets. I don't even know what to refer to him as. He's just a great guy. He's iconic on his own merits.

Making movies is never going to get better than working on a Coen brothers project.

I've spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you. I read a lot of scripts. Most of 'em go to other actors.

I don't want to be known as a sex symbol. There's a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.

You know, I know a lot of lifeguards. Both my parents were lifeguards at a lake in El Paso, Texas. I was a lifeguard in a swimming pool in Portland, Ore. And I have known and met and befriended a number of oceangoing lifeguards in California where I live.

I just went to see too many movies and I sat in too many dark matinees watching those old serials.

I've had those periods in my career when I was sitting around waiting for a phone call and had an agent who was doing the same thing rather than going out there to shake the bushes looking for a job for me. It's a frustrating game, that's the downside of this business - the rejection.

Any of these Vietnam vets that have been there and know the deal, they don't feel that any Hollywood endeavor about the Vietnam era has ever gotten it right yet.

I did beef ads for about eight years because I love the people in that industry, and there are a lot of people who make their living in the beef world. Ranchers, primarily.

I truly loved Jason Reitman. I was there on his first film, 'Thank You For Smoking,' and I'd go work with him to do anything.