Sterling Hayden quotes

What confuses me is I ain't all that unhappy. So why do I drink? I don't know. (Sterling Hayden)

The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Sterling Hayden

When a man's bogged down, when the thing he is trying to do isn't working out, then he has to damn good and well change his way of living.

Sterling Hayden

Hayden's wild," they said. "He's kind of nuts - but you've got to hand it to him. He doesn't give a damn about the loot or the stardom or things like that - something to do with his seafaring, or maybe what he went through in the war . . ."

Sterling Hayden

A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go anymore than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail.

Sterling Hayden

Deterrence is the art of producing, in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack.

Sterling Hayden

I don't think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since the day I did that thing.

Sterling Hayden

What does a man need - really need?

Sterling Hayden

If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

Sterling Hayden

Your mind flies free and you see yourself as an actor, condemned to a treadmill wherein men and women conspire to breathe life into a screenplay that allegedly depicts life as it was in the old wild West.

Sterling Hayden

There's nothing wrong with being an actor, if that's what a man wants. But there's everything wrong with achieving an exalted status, simply because one photographs well and is able to handle dialogue put in one's mouth by others. (Sterling Hayden)

Wind is to us what money is to life on shore.

Sterling Hayden

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea 'cruising' it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

Sterling Hayden