James Cromwell

“What is magnificent about humans is when they decide to turn and stand. If they respond with non-violence on principle and hold their ground, they are really magnificent.”

“The last part of life is a spiritual concern. You need to find a context to put your life into, that will allow you to go through it with as much grace and balance as possible, even if there is rebellion and adventure and exploration and resistance.”

“Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.”

“We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could.”

“I think the relationship of indigenous people to their environment... that those were ethical omnivores.”

“I don't study films particularly. I plan to direct, but I'm not watching film - I watch the entire film to see how the story goes, but I don't say, 'Oh, so he does a slow pan here, or he pulls here, watch the crane shot, or look at the composition,' because it's got to be my eye.”

“I started in theatre. I was at Cleveland and I went to London for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth.”

“I say a lot of things I shouldn't say.”

“I have a film called 'A Lonely Place For Dying,' which is the most watched film on the Internet, over 3 million hits, more than any of Hollywood's films.”

“I was told by my agent that a number of big stars won't work with anyone two inches taller than them and most of them are under six feet, so you have to be prepared to have trouble.”

“I was going to design sports cars, but my father came to my college to visit me. At the time he was making a picture in Sweden and he took me there with him. I got to see Ingmar Bergman's company and I thought, 'Gee, filmmaking is a lot more fun than sports cars,' so I decided to follow him and go into acting.”

“I drove through the stockyards of Texas on a motorcycle. It doesn't let you escape what surrounds you and what it smells like and feels like - and what hit me was the realization that something that was alive and had feelings will suffer before a piece of it is placed on our plates.”

“But if you really want to learn about life, get a cat. The way I think people should relate to animals is with a cat. Because the world is his.”

“Until men learn to celebrate and operate on the feminine aspect of themselves and stop the oppression of women, children, the environment, other species, we don't have a world to live in. It's not a world that anyone chooses to live in.”

“The attitude we have towards our personal pets as opposed to the animals that suffer under the factory farm is hypocritical and delusional.”