Richard Gere Quotes

I do my work as an actor, but another part of my work goes to the piece as a whole. I can be fairly detached looking at my work and be brutal on myself.

Tibetan Buddhism had an enormous impact on me.

My first encounter with Buddhist dharma would be in my early 20s. Like most young men, I was not particularly happy.

It's rare that a good writer will sit down and write a good script. Writers are greedy too, and they don't want to work without getting paid. But quality will find its way out.

I find that you can use an acting technique when the thing isn't working, not that you make the technique the end result of your work. You use the technique when you're in trouble and things aren't flowing the way they should. It's a way of fooling yourself to make it work again.

I would say that the West is very young, it's very corrupt. We're not very wise. And I think we're hopeful that there is a place that is ancient and wise and open and filled with light.

The idea of fixing of healing is an important part of any genuine spiritual approach. Kabbalah is very much about this idea of fixing of things that have been damaged. From a Buddhist point of view, things have been damaged because ignorance has intoxicated the mind.

When I started acting, it was really the way for me to be able to communicate.

Food is the only beautiful thing that truly nourishes.

People don't understand what happiness is, so they have an idea of what will make them happy, but it never does.

It's nice to have money, but the first thing I did with money was buy my father a snow-blower, because my job was to shovel snow, and I wasn't there to do it any more, so I was able to buy him a blower.

Certainly there have been better actors than me who have had no careers. Why? I don't know.

When you get up in the morning, set your motivations.

I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe, and someone said I was a snake, I'd think, no, actually I'm a giraffe.

Western Buddhists in many ways are much serious Buddhists than Tibetans are.

Everyone seems to think they know what acting techniques are. Techniques just help you get to a certain place, but if the thing is happening just by itself you don't need those techniques.

When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it's because of karma, some past connection.

In a situation like this, of course you identify with everyone who's suffering. (But we must also think about) the terrorists who are creating such horrible future lives for themselves because of the negativity of this karma. It's all of our jobs to keep our minds as expansive as possible. If you can see (the terrorists) as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine, and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better.

I've had an interesting life.

I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn't mean that they are the best ones to do it.

In a way, one gets stability from being able to order the rational mind.

The drive for happiness is vital; it's what keeps us in motion.

What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love.

I can't say I have control over my emotions; I don't know my mind. I'm lost like everyone else. I'm certainly not a leader.

People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It's ludicrous. It's not as bad as mass animal death in a factory.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today, and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let's just say things would have turned out differently.

Sometimes it's an external approach where one can learn the skills required, let's say, learn to play the trumpet and in that process other things happen. It's magical: through the process of practicing four hours a day you start focusing on emotion and when you pick up the trumpet it's filled with feeling.

Anything that's expanding the mind and heart is happiness. But it's not a goal.

It's not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it's not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.

I think people do want to relate their entertainment to what's going on in their lives. Not everything.

Well I think on a simple ecological level that the diversity of this planet is important for our survival, that all of our different cultures, people are important to the health of the whole the same way that a species of animal should be saved and at a simple ecology level.

I don't know any of us who are in relationships that are totally honest - it doesn't exist.

I honestly do not think about celebrity or image or sexual expectations on me. It only comes up when people have a list of questions. But what I am told is that there is a quality that I have onscreen, where it's a little bit of everything.

Things come out of nowhere, and you start evaluating the director, the cast, and all those other things going into it.

Why is it when we have 10 million people in this country who say 'No', we still have a president who says 'Yes.' In a democracy, something's wrong here.

Sharon Stone. She is one of the most dedicated people I know, but also highly unedited.

I meditate. Daily practice is essential to my life.

I had a friend in the neighborhood whose father had Playboy magazines, and we would go over and look at them. I remember cutting out pictures and hiding them in my room.

It's human nature - we want to believe our children, our families, our President!

I've always said it's flattering to be desired, just as it's flattering that people accept the reality of the character you play. But it was always ridiculous to assume that because I could play a gigolo on screen I'd play anything like that role off screen.

I think life is self-examination. Certainly the voyage that one takes.

Any political situation has many sides... We intellectualize the whole situation any way... We make our intellectual decisions based on our cultural background and how we live.

If you have a built-in level of respect and trust and openness to essentially be yourself, it allows for a deeper uncensored communication [with your partner].

I'm rarely in a situation where, if you have a good idea, it's not embraced. That's stupid. And I don't work with stupid people.

Shooting in New York can be a problem... I had to walk through a crowd, come in the front door, and play the scene.

People have a different idea of how movies are made than they really are. On a certain level, everyone throws ideas into the hopper. It's not like the actors are wind-up dolls that you push out onto the floor, play with, then put back in the box. You get people around you who you trust; the writer, the producer, the director and all the actors all contribute.

There are some problems on this planet that seem to be intractable.

Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.