Dave Bautista quotes:

If you're pursuing something that you love and you're learning something new, every day, that's the key to youth [staying young].

I never excelled at one sport or had a very strong passion for anything other than wrestling and bodybuilding.

Kissing babies and hugging fat girls.

The worst injury I have ever suffered in the ring was a torn triceps; they had to take a piece of my hamstring to repair the tear. It was brutal; I was out for 6 months.

I'm not a big guy. I'm not a menacing guy. I'm not an intimidating guy. I may look that way, but just spend two seconds talking to me, and you know that's not who I am - not as a person, as a character. It's not who I intend to be.

I was an amateur wrestler, which I loved. It was my passion, but I started really late; I was a junior in high school when I began.

I was actually sitting on stage at a press conference one day, and I totally lost touch with reality. I just thought to myself: 'Vin Diesel is sitting next to me, and Benicio Del Toro's on the other side. This is weird, man.'

I internalize everything, keep everything inside. I'm not used to spilling my guts, and when you have to do that on film to make a point, it's hard. It's rough. I don't think it's as easy as people think.

It was always one of my favorite things, the action figures, the video games, when I was with WWE, even though I'm not a gamer. I would literally go out and buy the games just so I could play myself.

Know your lines; otherwise, have an open mind because you want to get lost in the moment. When you have talented actors and directors to work with, then it's pretty easy to do.

I look like a gorilla, just the way I'm built.

Honestly, I don't aspire to be a huge movie star. I really just fell in love with acting... Everything I do on-screen is very subtle.

My first acting lessons were Shakespeare. The first time I ever started working with a coach was doing scenes from 'Measure for Measure,' which were tough dramatic scenes. And then 'Taming of the Shrew,' which required comedic timing. And that's the kind of stuff I love.

For some reason, I'm the guy people love to hate, which I think is weird. People who know me find that very strange, but for some reason, I am. I don't mind being that guy - I have fun with it.

I'm a poor kid from the streets. What I've been able to achieve has really just been through hard work and not letting anyone tell me that I couldn't do something. I always try to encourage people to just pursue your dreams.

I'm a professional wrestler at heart, and I miss it.

You do take a beating in professional wrestling. But I love it.

People look at me, and they have a certain perception, and they slap a label on me. The guy you saw in a wrestling ring is not who I am.

I don't want to intimidate people. There's nothing bullyish about me, you know. If there's anybody who's anti-bully, it's me.

I'm not afraid to go up to people and pick their brains and ask for advice. To me, that's how you get better. That's how I've gotten better at everything I've ever done. Don't be too proud to ask for help.

If I could get myself to a place where I felt secure and I wouldn't have to kind of worry about money and I know my family would be secure, then I would leave the big studios so I could continue to make smaller films, and hopefully get to direct a few of them, too.

It's much easier when you have your co-workers who are just, they're there in the moment. If you were out of the moment, you would feel odd.

I didn't want to take the typical action roles that everybody was expecting me to take, because I was going to get typecast as that guy, the action guy who didn't have anything really bright to say and who just kicked in doors and punched people in the face and shot people and drove off in a cool car. I didn't want to be that guy.

For some reason, I struggle seeing myself as a leading man.

I'm creating my niche. My niche is going to be "shirtless guy."

Nothing can motivate me any more than I'm motivated.

It's really a great luxury to have, to be able to go from big films to indie films, too. Because I'm on the job learning as an actor, and independent films is where I'm learning to act.

Basketballs dont hold grudges!

In wrestling there are so many people inside and outside the ring, and it's so live, and it's this whole adrenaline thing. Whereas you move it into this more intimate thing, everything gets all quiet, someone says action, and you have to say the lines and make the words your own. It couldn't be any more different and it's weird sometimes trying to explain that to people. When I tell people that acting is much more terrifying to me than going out in front of ten thousand people, they don't quite believe it because for some reason that intimacy is just terrifying to me.

I didn't want to be a movie star, I wanted to be an actor. Because acting is what I fell in love with, and acting is what is still challenging for me.

The acting stuff is more important to me than actually being a big star.

It's never boring in makeup.

I spent my whole life being very shy and introverted and I kind of found my release and therapy in the gym. I became this big, menacing physical stature of a man but internally I'm still kind of insecure. Warm, fuzzy and gooey.

I'm more a fan of old-school films with really interesting stories and good performances. That's what I'd like to do.

My ultimate goal is actually to direct and develop projects. I don't want them to be big projects with a lot of special effects because that's not really what appeals to me.

I want to play the regular guy who's had a bit of a jaded past or a bit of a tortured soul because I think they're interesting.

I love playing different characters. I just do. I want to play even more quirky and interesting characters and just something that people wouldn't automatically think that I would be. I want to go against the grain a bit and I'm hoping people will be open-minded enough to cast me in stuff that's going against the grain.

I'm not a leading man. I'm a character actor. That's what I want to be.

If you do an indie film, where it's like, "We don't have a lot of money to give you, but we'll really give you a lot of freedom," that's really a luxury to have in this business. At least for myself, because I'm still kind of earning my acting credibility.

I really feel like indie films are where I learn to be a better actor, especially because they always give you a bit more freedom to collaborate.

I don't think there's a certain part of a character I take with me. There's a certain part of me I leave with each character, though.