Richard Gere quotes:

The Dalai Lama said that he thinks mother's love is the best symbol for love and compassion, because it is totally disinterested.

Tibetan Buddhism had an enormous impact on me.

The secret of my success is my hairspray.

I can't say I have control over my emotions; I don't know my mind. I'm lost like everyone else. I'm certainly not a leader.

When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it's because of karma, some past connection.

Maybe the Dalai Lama is the only person who is totally honest, and even with him, he's skillful not to hurt anybody. He's skillful.

Sometimes I'm kind of spacey. I'm like Ferdinand the bull, sniffing the daisy, not aware of time, of what's going on in the real world.

One of the joys of being an actor is that you're always learning new things. And I've been doing this since I was 19, so there's been a lot of new things I have learned for each part. I always assume that I can do it.

I've stayed good friends with most of my girlfriends.

In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters.

As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love, and compassion. That these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding. Please help to stop this madness.

I think life is self-examination. Certainly the voyage that one takes.

Well I think on a simple ecological level that the diversity of this planet is important for our survival, that all of our different cultures, people are important to the health of the whole the same way that a species of animal should be saved and at a simple ecology level.

My first encounter with Buddhist dharma would be in my early 20s. Like most young men, I was not particularly happy.

It's nice to have money, but the first thing I did with money was buy my father a snow-blower, because my job was to shovel snow, and I wasn't there to do it any more, so I was able to buy him a blower.

I've had an interesting life.

Billions of people don't practice a religion at all.

What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love.

People have a different idea of how movies are made than they really are.

I've always said it's flattering to be desired, just as it's flattering that people accept the reality of the character you play. But it was always ridiculous to assume that because I could play a gigolo on screen I'd play anything like that role off screen.

All of our energy should be in sacrifice and services. Suffering, at least.

I have a lot of beautiful friends.

I don't know any of us who are in relationships that are totally honest - it doesn't exist.

I would rather be loved than have money and all that other stuff.

I've lived in New York when I've had nothing, and I've lived in New York when I had money, and New York changes radically depending on how much money you have. It's the texture of life.

In a way, one gets stability from being able to order the rational mind.

If the work is going well and it's something that has value with some meaning to it, it gives back a lot.

I don't regret anything. Everything happens for a reason-it's part of the healing process. Life is a healing process.

I find that you can use an acting technique when the thing isn't working, not that you make the technique the end result of your work. You use the technique when you're in trouble and things aren't flowing the way they should. It's a way of fooling yourself to make it work again.

I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe, and someone said I was a snake, I'd think, no, actually I'm a giraffe.

The idea of fixing of healing is an important part of any genuine spiritual approach. Kabbalah is very much about this idea of fixing of things that have been damaged. From a Buddhist point of view, things have been damaged because ignorance has intoxicated the mind.

I'm less needy about needing to express myself through acting. I have many different lives outside of this that are extremely fulfilling.

When His Holiness won the Nobel Peace Prize, there was a quantum leap. He is not seen as solely a Tibetan anymore; he belongs to the world.

There is nothing real about film. Nothing. Even the light particles that project the film can't be proven to exist. Nothing is there.

When you work as an actor, you've got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.

Everyone responds to kindness.

It's not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it's not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.

There are times when telling lies are not a bad thing. It can be a compassionate thing. But to make it benign, you have to be aware of your compassionate reasons for telling that lie.

When I am there [Tibet], I am very happy. The Tibetans radiate. They literally send out light. His holiness [the Dalai Lama] generates love and compassion to every human being. He has committed himself to that. I haven't made that leap yet. I haven't given up self-aspiration. I still love making movies.

Western Buddhists in many ways are much serious Buddhists than Tibetans are.

I have made plenty of mistakes. The key to life is to learn from them. I have been a little too introspective, but I think that stemmed from insecurity or shyness. I took a long time to grow up.

If you have a built-in level of respect and trust and openness to essentially be yourself, it allows for a deeper uncensored communication [with your partner].

I'm voting for Gore because the other is unthinkable. Which most of us will probably do. I hope all of us. I've always liked Ralph Nader and would like to see a real third party, but the thought of George Bush as president is unthinkable.

I would say that the West is very young, it's very corrupt. We're not very wise. And I think we're hopeful that there is a place that is ancient and wise and open and filled with light.

I'd bought a lot of really challenging, cutting-edge Joel-Peter Witkin photographs very early on. There were severed heads and amputated feet and hands in them - gruesome stuff. I had them all around the house, and if someone couldn't relate to it in some artistic way and instead just said "Yuck," then there probably wouldn't have been anywhere for us to go.

Mindfulness is a quality that's always there. It's an illusion that there's a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you're either mindful or you're not.

I think most of our religious institutions are pretty corrupt, so they're not reliable. I think the Christian religion that I was brought up with has very little to do with Christ, really, and more an institutions that have built up around the church.

There are some problems on this planet that seem to be intractable.

I have no sense of time, and I'm a dreamer.

I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn't mean that they are the best ones to do it.

I meet human beings who are flawed, who are mentally ill and have enormous problems, but I don't think I've ever met someone who was a totally dark energy that had no humanity or sense of love or affection for anything in their life. That's very rare.

My life is pretty simple and normal.

The drive for happiness is vital; it's what keeps us in motion.

Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.

(Sometimes when) someone's directing for the first time, they're afraid to include everyone - they have to prove they're the director.

A lot of making a movie is the comfort level of the people. It's just feeling open. We need to get along. We have to know something about each other.

Always walk towards open doors. And if they slam shut in your face, kick that sucker in and keep going.

America has never paid any attention to other people, so it's absurd for Bush to say that it's all in the best interests of the Iraqi people.

Any political situation has many sides. We intellectualize the whole situation any way. We make our intellectual decisions based on our cultural background and how we live.

Anything that's expanding the mind and heart is happiness. But it's not a goal.

Arabs are a burden on the world and should be annihilated.

Certainly there have been better actors than me who have had no careers. Why? I don't know.

Editing a film is always a question of time, and the director. I've worked with a lot of directors who don't mind my involvement. They appreciated it.

Even in comedies, you've got to feel safe for things to just happen in a way that is natural and free, and recognizable as human.

Everyone seems to think they know what acting techniques are. Techniques just help you get to a certain place, but if the thing is happening just by itself you don't need those techniques.

Food is the only beautiful thing that truly nourishes.

From a Buddhist point of view, emotions are not real. As an actor, I manufacture emotions. They're a sense of play. But real life is the same. We're just not aware of it.

His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] has told me, urgently and repeatedly, that he thinks my photographs are crap. His exact words were, 'These photos are of poor quality. Why is there no sharp focus? There is no clarity!' I said, 'But your Holiness, it's Goyaesque.' And he said, 'No! It's out of focus!'

I always remember what Bob Dylan said in that [Martin] Scorsese documentary on him. When he was asked about Joan Baez's complaints about the way he treated her when they were together, Dylan laughed and said, "It's impossible to be in love and wise at the same time."

I can see the character in a photograph, in the way a guy stands or holds his hands, the way he buckles his belt. I fantasize a lot looking at photographs. I'm sure that doesn't work for many people.

I can't remember that I was ever looking for anything. I was waiting for something to touch me. It's like, I'll be open to it, and see if it moves me. There has to be a "falling in love" moment.

I cry every chance I get.

I do my work as an actor, but another part of my work goes to the piece as a whole. I can be fairly detached looking at my work and be brutal on myself.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today, and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let's just say things would have turned out differently.

I don't meet many people that are evil. I meet human beings who are flawed, who are mentally ill and have enormous problems, but I don't think I've ever met someone who was a totally dark energy that had no humanity or sense of love or affection for anything in their life. That's very rare.

I don't think that bravery is about skin. Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need.

I had a friend in the neighborhood whose father had Playboy magazines, and we would go over and look at them. I remember cutting out pictures and hiding them in my room.

I have to admit, a manicured look works for me.

I haven't worked with people who are jealous or competitive. That's a particularly deadly attitude to have when you're working on a film.

I honestly do not think about celebrity or image or sexual expectations on me. It only comes up when people have a list of questions. But what I am told is that there is a quality that I have onscreen, where it's a little bit of everything.

I just had a device made that fits in your mouth and juts your jaw out like you have an underbite. It locks in that position to keep your throat passage open when you sleep. This is the sacrifice I make for my wife. It was either this device or me sleeping in the other room.

I meditate. Daily practice is essential to my life.

I tend to be a bit of a dreamer.

I think movies probably are a mirror in some way so we can see ourselves in them.

I think people do want to relate their entertainment to what's going on in their lives. Not everything.

I think that as human beings we tend to compartmentalize, and we have a selective morality based on the situation we're in.

If people lose their land, they have nothing. You lose your land - you lose your culture, you lose self.

If the United States marches into Iraq without the backing of the United Nations, that will be done entirely without the backing of the American people.

If you can see them [the terrorists] as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better.

If you have any question in your mind, don't do it. If you go in thinking it's going to fix something that's wrong, don't do it.

I'm a 50 year-old guy and I'm not in shape like I was when I was 30.

I'm not that tough; I'm not that smart. I need life telling me who I am, showing me my mind constantly. I wouldn't see it in a cave.

I'm rarely in a situation where, if you have a good idea, it's not embraced. That's stupid. And I don't work with stupid people.

I'm younger than I once was. Internally. Less self-conscious. Less insecure.

In a situation like this, of course you identify with everyone who's suffering. (But we must also think about) the terrorists who are creating such horrible future lives for themselves because of the negativity of this karma. It's all of our jobs to keep our minds as expansive as possible. If you can see (the terrorists) as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine, and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better.

In the process of developing a character, you do, in fact, start to take him on as a personality. It's part of my job.

It was important for me to have a partner who was ballsy.

It's human nature - we want to believe our children, our families, our President!

It's rare that a good writer will sit down and write a good script. Writers are greedy too, and they don't want to work without getting paid. But quality will find its way out.

I've always maintained that all characters and all personalities are in all of us. The whole thing is available. You're not this or that, no one is.

I've got a lot of opportunities, a lot of love in my life, a lot of things going for me. Still, it's not complete. I know this is not the whole thing. There's much more.

Julia [Roberts]. She's got two kids and animals, and I think she's a night nibbler. There'd be crumbs everywhere.

Movie acting is primarily listening. If you're really engaged, that's all a movie audience wants to see is you processing what's happening in your world.

On a movie set that works, you have your father figure, the director, you have your siblings, your other actors.

People are always talking about freedom. Freedom to live a certain way, without being kicked around. Course the more you live a certain way, the less it feel like freedom. Me, uhm, I can change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else. I don't know who I am most of the time.

People are expecting me to be a certain way all the time. It's not like if I come in here with a totally different personality and right before the camera starts they see this new character. It confuses everything. Life has a consensus reality to it and if you use that to your advantage it makes it much easier.

People don't understand what happiness is, so they have an idea of what will make them happy, but it never does.

People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It's ludicrous. It's not as bad as mass animal death in a factory.

People have a different idea of how movies are made than they really are. On a certain level, everyone throws ideas into the hopper. It's not like the actors are wind-up dolls that you push out onto the floor, play with, then put back in the box. You get people around you who you trust; the writer, the producer, the director and all the actors all contribute.

Relationships are like sharks. They've got to keep going into deeper, colder water, sometimes scarier, darker territories ... to stay alive.

Sharon Stone. She is one of the most dedicated people I know, but also highly unedited.

Shooting in New York can be a problem. I had to walk through a crowd, come in the front door, and play the scene.

Sometimes it's an external approach where one can learn the skills required, let's say, learn to play the trumpet and in that process other things happen. It's magical: through the process of practicing four hours a day you start focusing on emotion and when you pick up the trumpet it's filled with feeling.

The idea that you're completing someone else in a marriage to me is death. That to me is a false start and most of us are usually taught that ... you've got to stand on your own. Then you can build something extraordinary.

The reality is, we can change. We can change ourselves. We can change our minds. We can change our hearts... and therefore the Universe changes.

There is a way of looking at an awful place from a certain angle that allows it to take on a beauty because it is what it is.

There's really one character for every actor. The voyage is to find that one character.

Things come out of nowhere, and you start evaluating the director, the cast, and all those other things going into it.

To read your own mind is to look at your self and read your soul. Hatred becomes love and that is the path I am working on

We've had too many World AIDS Days.