I find that it's a very odd thing to think of competition when you're talking about what I still think of as art. I don't think of competing with actors or filmmakers at all. You do compete, in a way, at the box office, but we're far enough apart when both films are coming out that I'm not concerned with that either.
George ClooneyI think there are a lot of great journalists out there. I don't find much fault in the journalist in general; I think everybody would like to break a good story.
George ClooneyWhen you go to Detroit you see a town that is resilient, that's just fighting to win again, and there's an energy to that. Just watching a city really fighting to get back on its feet and watching the inner strength of a city is tremendous.
George ClooneyIt is a question in that case of breaking up one piece of art, and whether that piece of art can be as best as possible put back together. So it's an argument to say, maybe that's one of those instances, like the bust of Nefertiti, I think that should be given back [Egyptian piece currently in Neues Museum in Berlin]. It's one of those pieces you look at and think that would probably be the right thing to do.
George ClooneyMy life isn't focused on results. My life is really focused on the process of doing all the things I'm doing, from work to relationships to friendships to charitable work.
George ClooneyPoliticians have a tremendous amount of ego to be able to do it. It's very hard when the product your selling to an entire country is yourself and you're just selling the hell out of it all the time.
George ClooneyI think people in Italy live their lives better than we do. It's an older country, and they've learned to celebrate dinner and lunch, whereas we sort of eat as quickly as we can to get through it.
George ClooneyI was in a bar and I said to a friend, 'You know, we've become those 40-year-old guys we used to look at and say, 'Isn't it sad?'
George ClooneyI'm the old-fashioned type who prefers to meet a woman in a more normal setting. I don't like to feel that I'm being hunted down. I've always liked to do my own hunting when it comes to meeting women.
George ClooneyGrowing up during the Cold War period, I always found that, although we always thought that the world would end in some sort of nuclear holocaust, at some point, everybody was pretty hopeful.
George ClooneyWhen you first start out as an actor, you're just looking for a good part. As time goes on, if you're being held responsible for the movies themselves, you're looking for a good script all around.
George ClooneyArt takes different forms... But it represents something that is basic in all of us-our history.
George ClooneyThe simple truth is that everyone has an opinion, everyone has the right to voice it, and they should if they want to.
George ClooneyI think it's the most responsible thing you can do, to have kids. It's not something to be taken lightly. I don't have that gene that people have to replicate.
George ClooneyI'm always sort of optimistic about how good we are, as a country, at fixing ourselves.
George ClooneyI've been left for someone...all those things...It was sometimes a surprise, and sometimes you saw t coming. The most painful was when I kept trying to get someone back. But we all make dumb mistakes.
George ClooneyIf we dig deep in our history and remember that we are not descendants from fearful people, we proclaim ourselves indeed as we are the defenders of freedom wherever it continues to exist in the world.
George ClooneyWhen you start out as an actor, you read a script thinking of it at its best. But that's not usually the case in general, and usually what you have to do is you have to read a script and think of it at its worst. You read it going, "OK, how bad could this be?" first and foremost. You cannot make a good film out of a bad script. You can make a bad film out of a good script, but you can't make a good film out of a bad script.
George ClooneyThe owner of a local cannabis café told reporters George Clooney was no stranger there.
George ClooneyMy little animal secrets must remain my little animal secrets. How I do my nails, that is really my business.
George ClooneyNinety percent of films are pretty mediocre, but they have a built-in audience and open on 3,000 screens.
George ClooneyThe truth of the matter is the real story are the people who rise above all of this incredible cruelty. Otherwise that cruelty wins.
George ClooneyWe try to make films for people [that are] the films that we'd like to see. They're not easy to get made. They're hard to get made. You have to keep the budget low to get them made. But at the end of the day, I don't really worry about competition, because I don't really think of it that way. I don't feel like I'm in a race with anybody.
George ClooneyAfter a while, you just want transportation, and things like cool cars or motorcycles are all about getting attention. I get all the attention I could ever need, so I kind of like being in a minivan and people not paying so much attention to me.
George ClooneyIn 2003 I was saying, where are the ties [between Iraq] and al-Qaida? Where are the ties to 9/11? I knew it; where the f**k were these Democrats who said, 'We were misled'? That's the kind of thing that drives me crazy: 'We were misled.' F**k you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic.
George ClooneyWhat I try to do is make sure that the directors I'm working with are on the same page and want to do the same kind of films. You can really protect yourself as an actor if you work with really good people. It can hide a lot of flaws along the way.
George ClooneyAny topical subject, if it's Hollywood, will be a couple of years later because you've got to write it, produce it and distribute it, so automatically you're never going to be right on the cutting edge of stories.
George ClooneyIf you're famous, I don't - for the life of me - I don't understand why any famous person would ever be on Twitter.
George ClooneyIt is rather astonishing that the United States does not play ball with the ICC, considering our country was the beacon of the idea of an international criminal court.
George ClooneyOn Christmas morning, before we could open our Christmas presents, we would go to this stranger's home and bring them presents. I remember helping clean the house up and putting up a tree. My father believed that you have a responsibility to look after everyone else.
George ClooneyIf you think back , the Academy was doing a better job. Think about how many more African Americans were nominated.We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.
George ClooneyWe must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must not walk in fear of one another. We must not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.
George ClooneyThe Patriot Act is certainly a concern; all of those things are dangerous. I think more important than me preaching is that we as a nation have to have the debate. I don't know what the answers are. I just know that if the idea is to say talking about it makes you unpatriotic, I've got to call your bluff on that.
George ClooneyBoth of my grandparents died of lung cancer. So I got quite a lesson in the payback later in life of smoking, and if you keep it up how bad it can be.
George ClooneyDirecting is really exciting. In the end, it's more fun to be the painter than the paint.
George ClooneyI have a real interest in pushing some of the limits of things that studios don't want to make.
George Clooney"Is Art worth dying for?" Well I don't know a single inanimate object that's worth dying for.
George ClooneyThere's a certain cruelty to being on a big screen as your eyelids start to sag and your hair falls out and turns gray that you either have to be able to handle or not. What you can't do is try to force yourself into roles that you could have played or would have played ten years earlier.
George ClooneyActing is one element in a film. Directing is sort of the painter using all of those elements - sound and music and camera and putting it all together. And that can be fun and exciting. If you fail, it's incredibly upsetting - much more upsetting than when you're an actor. But when you succeed it's incredibly, incredibly exciting, so I like the risk of it all.
George Clooney