I'm paying the third highest alimony and child support in the world. And the only two ahead of me are sheiks.

Smokey and the Bandit was the first picture [Hal Needham ] directed, and I knew he could handle it. I had just directed Gator, and he saw my style and used that as a pattern.

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.

When an actor marries an actress they both fight for the mirror.

My movies were the kind they show in prisons and airplanes, because nobody can leave.

Gator [ McKlusky from White Lightning] was a criminal and a felon, but he had a good heart - he's probably a cousin to Bo. Bo was not a felon and definitely never wanted to hurt anybody - the final scene confirms that. He confesses to Buford T. Justice that he is right behind him. Gator McKlusky would not have done that.

I'm really much more like Phil Potter from [the 1979 film] Starting Over. People do think I'm the Bandit [from Smokey and the Bandit ], and I'm a lot more serious than that.