Quote

My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn't believe this access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn't believe that it was free.

Kirk Douglas

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Kirk Douglas
Age: 103 †
Born: 1916
Born: December 9
Died: 2020
Died: February 5
Actor
Author
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Soldier
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Amsterdam (city)
New York
Issur Danielovitch
Izzy Demsky
Isador Demsky
Issur Danielovich
Free
Constantly
Librarian
Father
Subject
Literacy
Mother
Subjects
Amazed
America
Couldn
Immigrants
Book
Building
Cinema
Take
Child
Library
Children
Reading
Russia
Illiteracy
Believe
Knowledge
Access
Illiterate

More quotes by Kirk Douglas

Image
My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them.
Kirk Douglas
Image
Virtue is not photogenic. What is it to be a nice guy? To be nothing, that's what. A big fat zero with a smile for everybody.
Kirk Douglas
Image
If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.
Kirk Douglas
Image
I'm a loner clear down deep to my guts.
Kirk Douglas
Image
When you reach 95, after you get over your surprise, you start looking back.
Kirk Douglas
Image
I have been trying to create a campaign to have our country make an apology for slavery, for the way that blacks were treated before the Civil War and after the Civil War.
Kirk Douglas
Image
The first thing I look for in a woman is warmth-femininity. It's got nothing to do with a pretty face.
Kirk Douglas
Image
We look for wine when we should be hunting bread.
Kirk Douglas
Image
The older you get, the more awards you get. So, if you live long enough, then you get all the awards eventually.
Kirk Douglas
Image
When you get old the worst thing is you lose so many friends. Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne. People who I loved to work with.
Kirk Douglas
Image
I bought the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I paid to have it made into a play and I played in it for six months. I came back and I tried to make it into a movie, without success.
Kirk Douglas
Image
The only advantage I have found in being Jewish is that I can be openly anti-Semitic.
Kirk Douglas
Image
I guess I was a bad boy... Yes, yes, I've had lots of women in my life.
Kirk Douglas
Image
Really a bad guy is more interesting, dramatically, than the good guy.
Kirk Douglas
Image
If I have to speak in public, I am terrified.
Kirk Douglas
Image
Fame is as much about luck as it is about talent, perhaps more.
Kirk Douglas
Image
If I can get enough signatures, to present an apology to slavery, I will present it to the President. The House of Representatives has already passed the resolution for the apology, but it has to pass the Senate. I think, in spite of all our problems, I think we're in the right direction.
Kirk Douglas
Image
Streets crowded with people strolling, or sitting at outdoor cafes. And always, talking, gesturing, singing, laughing. I liked Rome immediately.Everybody was a performer.
Kirk Douglas
Image
Hail to the Chief was played, and the President got up and made a gracious opening remark. I've been in this office for six years, and yet every time I hear that music, I turn around wondering who they're playing it for.
Kirk Douglas
Image
I know Italians and I like them. A lot of my father's best friends were Italians.
Kirk Douglas