The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir

⚡️ 10 Quotes from the book

“You can read about private jets and red carpets elsewhere. This is definitely not that.”

copy text

“I wasn’t naturally anything. I wasn’t a lover. I wasn’t an athlete. I wasn’t a student. I wasn’t a leader. I measured things by what I wasn’t, not by anything I was.”

copy text

“I see that period in my life as the beginning of a great failure: failure to provide relief for Jackie at the home she lived in, failure as a husband, a lover, as an actor, as a father. I don’t deny anything. I’m not trying to allay anything. I do, though, have a predisposition to look at the negative of things.”

copy text

“Scott was an incredibly sensitive child. And I don’t think incredibly sensitive people fare well in this world.”

copy text

“It was my appearance that got me in the door. Where the hell would I have been if I looked like Golda Meir? Probably no place.”

copy text

“I wish I could do lots of things, but I can’t—and that doesn’t make me a bad person.”

copy text

“For someone as controlled as I am, to experience the delight, the luxury, of being out of control, not to have an inkling of what’s around the next corner and to keep yourself constantly at risk, is simply pleasurable.”

copy text

“It takes such a long time to grow up and by the time you really get there the people usually you’re growing up for are gone.”

copy text

“I only have a few firm convictions. I don’t believe in a hereafter. I don’t believe in resurrection. I’m not a mystic or a supernaturalist. But I am convinced that this is only a dress rehearsal. And when I die and they put me in that box down into the ground, someone is going to yell, “Cut!””

copy text

“He passed this philosophy along to his family: when you are lucky enough to have a good life, then you should give back.”

copy text