Jackie Chan quotes: martial arts expert, actor, and stuntman gives us the goods.
“If one does not attach himself to people and desires, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?”
“Life will knock us down, but we can choose whether or not to stand back up.”
“Nothing makes me more determined to succeed than someone telling me something’s impossible.”
“I prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.”
“Do not let circumstances control you. You can change your circumstances.”
“Dare to be yourself, even if it means saying no to the hip, cool, hot thing that everyone wants you to do. If it means compromising who you are, then forget it.”
“Create your own brand, wrapped in your own original voice, enveloping the essence of who you are and not who someone wants you to be or who you think you should be. Be yourself and be totally at peace with it!”
“Know your business and all aspects of it well – really, really well, if you want to stand above others. Dust off all doubts and be confident. Understand how things work, know what you need, constantly be teaching and educating yourself about your business.”
“As one tale ends, so another begins.”
“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.”
“You don’t need a reason to be nice to someone.”
“Being still and doing nothing are two completely different things.”
“I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn’t know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself.”
“When I was young I trained a lot. I trained my mind, I trained my eyes, trained my thinking, how to help people. And it trained me how to deal with pressure.”
“When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.”
“I think every young child can learn through any martial art. They would then learn to respect their life, respect their parents, respect their country, and respect the whole world.”
“Kung fu lives in everything we do. It lives in how we put on a jacket and how we take off a jacket. It lives in how we treat people. Everything is Kung fu.”
“Family is not whose blood is in you, it’s who you love and who loves you.”
“The best fights are the ones we avoid.”
“Pain is my daily routine. As long as I don’t go to the hospital, it’s nothing for me.”
“It only hurts when I’m not laughing.”
“My dream is to continue filming until my body tells me to stop.”
“I do small things. I try to do good things every day. If everyone does some good, think of what a good world this will be.”
“Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.”
“When I was young I didn’t care about education, just money and box office.”
“At the beginning, I was nobody, I followed Bruce Lee and a large film crew, I was at the very back, but I watched the directors and what they were doing, I wanted to be the best stunt man, I wanted to do a better job than everyone else. And I did, and it worked.”
“The ads all call me fearless, but that’s just publicity. Anyone who thinks I’m not scared out of my mind whenever I do one of my stunts is crazier than I am.”
“No matter how much more I practice, my English will never be perfect. If it is really terrible, I’ll correct it, but otherwise, I do it my Jackie Chan way.”
“Why did I become Jackie Chan? Mostly because I work very hard. When people were sleeping, I was still training.”
“My schedule goes: wake up, running, exercise, downstairs, running shoes off, then to the shower. That’s the Jackie Chan diary.”
“When I was a child, I was very poor and wanted everything. So when I got money, I began buying things.”
“I’m crazy, but I’m not stupid.”
“For me the greatest source of income is still movies. Nothing – stocks, financial speculation, real estate speculation, or businesses – makes more money for me than making movies.”
“I want to really stress this, I am a director, an actor, producer, action choreographer, and I’m also an investor.”
“Most of the time, I’m not even working; I’m just helping people, because I feel that I am too lucky. If there really is a God, then he really looks after me. All these years he’s taken care of me, my career keeps getting better and better. Whatever I want just seems to come. And it keeps coming. So I promised myself that I have to pay for this – pay back society.”
“I feel like I have lived all over the world since I get to go everywhere to film.”
“A lot of people ask me when I do a stunt, ‘Jackie, are you scared?’ Of course I’m scared. I’m not Superman.”
“Even as an actor, you can keep the essence of who you are while doing your job and you can stay true to what resonates with you. Don’t be so quick to become a copycat in this life. Your true self is far more interesting.”
“Don’t try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie. Study computers instead.”
“I only want my work to make people happy.”
“Stop letting age get in the way of your dreams. You can have the time of your life with your passions at any age, if you simply commit, decide, and do.”
“What you see in the movies, that’s really me, the real life me. Funny, happy-go-lucky, broken English. That’s me.”
“For my philosophy, I would just say enjoy every moment of your life. Accept yourself and be young at heart.”
“I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.”
