James Cagney Quotes

• You dirty, double-crossing rat.

  James Cagney

  Dirty, Double Standard, Rats

  Blonde Crazy (motion picture) (1931).

  88 Copy quote

• Find your mark, look the other fellow in the eye, and tell the truth.

  James Cagney

  Eye, Looks, Telling The Truth

  48 Copy quote

• Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.

  James Cagney

  Happiness, Happy Life, Self

  James Cagney (1976). “Cagney by Cagney”

  50 Copy quote

• Perhaps people, and kids especially, are spoiled today, because all the kids today have cars, it seems. When I was young you were lucky to have a bike.

  James Cagney

  Children, Kids, People

  82 Copy quote

• Learn your lines… plant your feet… look the other actor in the eye… say the words… mean them.

  James Cagney

  Mean, Eye, Feet

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  48 Copy quote

• My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those misfortunes. I have an idea that the Irish possess a built-in don't-give-a-damn that helps them through all the stress.

  James Cagney

  Dad, Stress, Ideas

  James Cagney (1976). “Cagney by Cagney”

  50 Copy quote

• Outside of my family, the prime concern of my life has been nature and its order, and how we have been savagely altering that order.

  James Cagney

  Nature, Order, My Family

  James Cagney (1976). “Cagney by Cagney”

  40 Copy quote

• There's not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean everything you say.

  James Cagney

  Mean, Never Settle, Relax

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  40 Copy quote

• Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.

  James Cagney

  Song, Men, Few Words

  James Cagney (1976). “Cagney by Cagney”

  39 Copy quote

• I`m sick of carrying guns and beating up women.

  James Cagney

  Gun, Sick, Carrying Guns

  19 Copy quote

• I never said, 'MMMmmm, you dirty rat!

  James Cagney

  Dirty, Rats, Said

  24 Copy quote

• I never had the slightest difficulty with a fellow actor. Not until One, Two, Three. In that picture, Horst Buchholz tried all sorts of scene-stealing didoes. I came close to knocking him on his ass.

  James Cagney

  Two, Three, Actors

  34 Copy quote

• I got a part as a chorus girl in a show called Every Sailor and I had fun doing it. Mother didn't really approve of it, through.

  James Cagney

  Girl, Mother, Fun

  53 Copy quote

• Though I soon became typecast in Hollywood as a gangster and hoodlum, I was originally a dancer, an Irish hoofer, trained in vaudeville tap dance. I always leapt at the opportunity to dance in films later on.

  James Cagney

  Dance, Opportunity, Hollywood

  28 Copy quote

• You know, the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tired to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer, it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.

  James Cagney

  War, Struggle, Tired

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  84 Copy quote

• You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them... I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can.

  James Cagney

  Psych, Acting, Audience

  "Cagney by Cagney". Book by James Cagney, 1976.

  32 Copy quote

• The Postman Always RingsTwice.

  James Cagney

  Postman

  40 Copy quote

• New Orleans is 5 feet below sea level, which means that holes dug in the ground immediately fill with water. Coffins were punctured and sunk with weights, which didn't stop them from floating up out of the cemeteries and down the streets of the French Quarter on stormy nights. The solution was to bury people above ground, in what are called vaults.

  James Cagney

  Mean, Night, New Orleans

  28 Copy quote

• My father was totally Irish, and so I went to Ireland once. I found it to be very much like New York, for it was a beautiful country, and both the women and men were good-looking.

  James Cagney

  Beautiful, Country, New York

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  21 Copy quote

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