Harrison Ford Quotes

Harrison Ford shares blunt, funny anecdotes about movie risks, mixed heritage and his hectic storytelling gig.

18 quotes

1. I'm sure it's not dangerous, if it was dangerous they would've waited until we got more of the movie done.

2. I'm an analog guy. I knew when they introduced them that it wasn't gonna be what they said, it wasn't gonna be a convenience, it wasn't gonna make life easier, it was just gonna make another category of people that come to your house to fix shit that's broke.

3. I think the sonofabitch should die.

4. Speaking about his Russian/Jewish/Irish ancestors, Harrison Ford said that he is 'Irish as a person but I feel Jewish as an actor.'

5. I'm an assistant storyteller. It's like being a waiter or a gas-station attendant, but I'm waiting on six million people a week, if I'm lucky.

6. I'm like old shoes, I've never been hip.

7. The basic skill of an actor is, in fact, empathy, and that's maybe not a skill, it's a disposition. I am an assistant storyteller. I enjoy feeling useful to a team effort. It's my way of finding a use for myself, a utility in this world.

8. The kindest word to describe my performance in school was Sloth.

9. When we were making it [Star Wars], none of the effects were in. So the first time, I thought it was, you know, that - I mean, we were surrounded by English crew members that could hardly keep themselves together. They were, "Here comes the guy in the dog suit." They made fun of us, which was OK. But the first time I was sitting in a theater, and I saw all the effects in, and the big ship flew over the audience, and the sound rumbled, I pretty much thought we were close to home.

10. A bad guy in a movie has a lot of latitude for acting. He can walk up the wall, crawl across the ceiling, go piss in the corner and everybody will say, "Fantastic!" But somebody's going to have to catch that sucker. Somebody's going to have to play the guy who gets him in the end. And that's a better part.

11. I wanted to live the life, a different life. I didn't want to go to the same place every day and see the same people and do the same job. I wanted interesting challenges.

12. There are a lot of different paths through the jungle, but...the simplest thing you can do is make yourself useful. Be easy to work with, be a hard worker and help people get the job done. And do it with as much passion and quality as you can.

13. My older kids are fantastic people. It can't be the result of my influence on them.

14. I think I did have a reputation for being grumpy. I don't think I'm grumpy. I have opinions. I have an independent vision. I am a purposeful person. But on a daily basis, I think I'm other than grumpy. I think it is a case where I am coming to do business and not there just to be flattered and cajoled and used.

15. That [film What's My Line] was very useful to me because it had Branch Rickey in a social situation. Every other bit of film [42] that I had was him making a speech.

16. Because the character is a fiction, he's a composite of other contributors to the science that brought this enzyme therapy through the process. We had the opportunity to make him up out of those things that helped tell the story. We wanted to create both ally and antagonist for John [in the Extraordinary measures].

17. Henry: Well I'm sorry about your head though, but I thought you were one of them. Indiana: Dad, they come in through the doors.

18. It's the primordial characters [of the Star Wars]. It's the beautiful princess and the callow youth and the smartass that I played and the wise old warrior that Alec Guinness played. And it was a fairy tale. It was a fairy tale.