100 Quotes by Jackie Chan

Nothing makes me more determined to succeed than someone telling me something's impossible.

I never wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I just wanted to be the first Jackie Chan.

Don't try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie. Study computers instead.

Family is not who's blood is in you, is who you love and who loves you

The best fights are the ones we avoid. (Meaning)

I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn't know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself.

Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.

Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person's life. (Meaning)

I do small things. I try to do good things every day. If everyone does some good, think of what a good world this will be.

The children right now, the young children, everybody should go to a martial arts school. Why? Because as soon as they go to a martial arts school, they learn discipline.

Why did I become Jackie Chan? Mostly because I work very hard. When people were sleeping, I was still training.

Coffee is a language in itself.

Anyone can be a Superman, but nobody can be Jackie Chan.

If one does not attach himself to people and desires, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Kung fu lives in everything we do. It lives in how we put on a jacket and how we take off a jacket. It lives in how we treat people. Everything is kung fu.

We have to do what we can to help wherever and whenever it is possible for us to help.

Bruce Lee brought the martial arts movie to the attention of the world - and without him, I don't think that anyone would have ever heard of Jackie Chan.

The life of an action star is very short. I want to be an actor like Robert De Niro , like Dustin Hoffman or Clint Eastwood who in their 70s or 80s can still act.

Being still and doing nothing are two completely different things (Meaning)

You don't need a reason to be nice to someone.

Every time I make an American film I just trust the American director and American writer. Myself, I would never make this kind of film. For me, those kinds of films are ridiculous. They don't make sense.

I'm crazy, but I'm not stupid.

We live now in a global village and we are in one single family. It's our responsibility to bring friendship and love from all different places around the world and to live together in peace.

Even during the promotion I told people that I didn't like Rush Hour. The jokes I didn't understand and the fighting, compared to my Hong Kong films was terrible. A lot of people didn't like it. But mostly people did like it, they really liked it. Rush Hour really brought me to the American family audience.

I want to make people laugh and I want to try to encourage world peace.

As one tale ends, so another begins. (Meaning)

A lot of people ask me when I do a stunt, 'Jackie, are you scared?' Of course I'm scared. I'm not Superman.

When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.

Pain is my daily routine. As long as I don't go to the hospital, it's nothing for me.

American stuntmen are smart - they think about safety. When they do a jump in a car, they calculate everything: the speed, the distance. But in Hong Kong, we don't know how to count. Everything we do is a guess. If you've got the guts, you do it. All of my stuntmen have gotten hurt.

We learn martial arts as helping weakness. You never fight for people to get hurt. You're always helping people.

I'm good for some things, bad for a lot of things.

If I need to buy a TV, I'll definitely buy a Japanese TV. A Chinese TV might explode.

Besides entertainment and action, I want to educate. You know, as a producer or director, we do have a responsibility to society.

Martial arts is for defense. It's not for attacking. So when people are fighting, always, always, defend.

When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.

My dream is to continue filming until my body tells me to stop.

Cinema reflects culture and there is no harm in adapting technology, but not at the cost of losing your originality.

When I'm in meetings until 5am and then have to get up two hours later for filming, sometimes I ask myself 'why?'

No matter how much more I practice, my English will never be perfect. If it is really terrible, I'll correct it, but otherwise, I do it my Jackie Chan way.

When I was young I trained a lot. I trained my mind, I trained my eyes, trained my thinking, how to help people. And it trained me how to deal with pressure.

I hate violence, yes I do. It's kind of a dilemma, huh?.

I think every young child can learn through any martial art. They would then learn to respect their life, respect their parents, respect their country, and respect the whole world.

Officials of governments that use or produce landmines should be forced to see the reality of how landmines hurt people and make them suffer, because this would surely make them stop.

In the past when I was in Hollywood, I was like a dog. I felt humiliated. My English was not good. People would even ask me 'Jackie Who?'.

For me the greatest source of income is still movies. Nothing - stocks, financial speculation, real estate speculation or businesses - makes more money for me than making movies.

I just couldn't stop thinking about what landmines are doing to people here. I told people - my friends - about it, but it was just not enough. I knew I had to do more.

Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? (Meaning)

It only hurts when I'm not laughing.

Most of the time, I'm not even working; I'm just helping people, because I feel that I am too lucky.

Chinese people need to be controlled; otherwise, they will do whatever they want.

I only want my work to make people happy.

Speaking English is like tongue-twist for me. I can speak each word perfect, but then you have to string them together like, 'Blah, blah, blah.' That's when I get crazy.

The action star's life is very short. Back in Asia, I can do whatever I want to do. I'm the producer, I'm the director, I can do so many things, but in Hollywood any time I present a script they say: "No, no, no, Rush Hour 3, Rush Hour 4."

I hate interviews - but you have to do them.

Honestly, every movie I do in America, the only challenge for me is English. I've done everything already, for me it's pretty easy. Only the English.

In America there's no way I can make the kind of movie I like to make.

Martial arts is not for hurting people, it's for protecting people.

I want to build up my philosophy. My philosophy with kung fu is to respect people.

The movie business is a big gamble.

My schedule goes: wake up, running, exercise, downstairs, running shoes off, then to the shower. That's the Jackie Chan diary.

I don't want to be an action star, an action star's life is so short. I want my life to get longer, I want my career to get longer.

When I was a young stunt guy the director would say: "You're useless..." But I wanted to be the best, I wanted to be a super stunt guy. That's how I built myself, because of martial arts and everything.

When I work I do it from my heart. And my heart is that I bring love to the world. When I travel around the world I bring my love. I bring so much love in my heart. I hope you can feel that.

It is totally different making films in the East than in the West. In the East, I make my own Jackie Chan films, and it's like my family. Sometimes I pick up the camera because I choreograph all the fighting scenes, even when I'm not fighting. I don't have my own chair. I just sit on the set with everybody.

I do small things. I try to do good things every day.

I want to be an Asian Robert De Niro.

Very difficult to understand American audience, what they like, what they don't like. Some movie I like very much, it doesn't work. Some movie I don't like, it gets big box office. Very difficult.

I really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama.

The ads all call me fearless, but that's just publicity. Anyone who thinks I'm not scared out of my mind whenever I do one of my stunts is crazier than I am.

I hope next time when we meet, we won't be fighting each other. Instead we will be drinking tea together.

Actually, the few good Chinese movies that foreign countries choose to import are Zhang Yimou's, and mine, a few directors, but how many movies can we make in a year? We can only make a few, while they turn them out continuously.

Money for me today does not really matter.

Some people call Police Story the greatest action film of all time, and while I have to be humble and say that I disagree, it's definitely the favorite action film I've ever made.

I'm tired of fighting. I've always known that I can't be an action star all my life.

I make American films for American audiences and Asian films for Asian audiences.

When I came to Hollywood, I spoke no English - except nobody bullied me. Every day, I had nothing to do except training in English, to keep talking.

I sometimes just don't like to see the Ultimate Fighting. I just find it, as a martial artist, I just find it too violent.

I thought I should forget Hollywood and go back to Hong Kong. I'm so lucky that finally Hollywood accepts my comedy fighting.

My affection for Taiwan... is witnessed by everyone. My wife is Taiwanese and I am a son-in-law of Taiwan. I am half Taiwanese.

The kids never listen to you, especially the youngest ones.

After all those years in Asia, I don't have to do promotion anymore. We just release a Jackie Chan movie and - Boom! - people go.

Jackie Chan is a myth.

I think the family movie is very important to everybody right now.

Making a Hollywood film you don't have a very big movie because they have a Safety Captain and insurance people on the set. They have to check first. 'Don't do it. Let me check. Make sure everything is safe.'

Before I do a stunt, I have to make sure it is safe.

I think as a celebrity, we have to teach the young generation how to speak with the old generation.

My wish is to bring my heroes to the big screen, and many of them have already appeared in my films.

When I am making a film, I know what to do in front of a camera. What frightens me are the scenes with dialogue. Sometime they really want me to speak perfectly and I don't like that.

I hope I can make some Hollywood-type action films like 'Batman' or 'Spiderman', action films like that. With some wire work, maybe wearing a mask. Like that.

I loved cowboy movies when I was a kid. When I was five years old, I was already wearing a cowboy hat and suit. When I grew up, I knew John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas and so on.

Every time I make American film I just trust American directors and American writers.

If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic.

My skull, my eyes, my nose three times, my jaw, my shoulder, my chest, two fingers, a knee, everything from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Listing what body parts he has broken

When I look at young kids today I just don't believe it, parents take away the Gameboy and they're suicidal. They cannot take the pressure.

Everyone is saying that I'm retiring, but I want to solemnly declare, that I don't want to retire, I just want to do things a bit less dangerous to my body, less dangerous action.

Being a stunt coordinator, I have to take care not only of myself but I have to make sure everyone is safe.

I want to be in 'Avatar'. I want somebody to hire me to be Superman, a Chinese Superman or Spider-Man.

As a father, I always want my son to be perfect. When he was young, I tried to train him in martial arts, but he said, 'I don't want to become like Bruce Lee's son, with everybody telling me how good my father was.' I just think my son is too lazy.

American movies show you how to fight and break armsand necks. I want to make the action in my movies like dancing.

I really like to be by myself and if I do go out to look around, I dress in jeans. My secretary is constantly telling me to dress up, shave and look your best because people know you. That bothers me. I just want to be natural.

Olympics for me is love, peace, united.

When I was young I didn't care about education, just money and box office.

I want to really stress this, I am a director, an actor, producer, action choreographer, and I'm also an investor.

I've seen too many ups and downs in the movie industry.

I know that eventually, I'll have to change my life and my career, but I've got a lot of good years left in me yet.

I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.

I have a metal plate in my head, and can pop my shoulder and pop it back.

Actor's life is very long.

When life knocks you down, you can choose to get back up.

Acting keeps me young! I love that the fans like this kind of action and as long as they want me I'll continue to do it.

If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.

The authorities should stipulate what issues people can protest over and on what issues it is not allowed.

Every country when they have Olympics, a lot of people come out opposed.

More understand China, then more people will have interest in China and more people will come to China to visit us because I am a tourist ambassador.

Sometimes I'd like to play the bad guy and sometimes I'd like to die in a movie.

May we all co-operate and join this war on pirates.

When I go out, people look at me with a puzzled expression on their faces thinking, "You're Jackie Chan?". When people stare at me, it makes me uncomfortable. More and more I find that I just stay in my hotel when I am working.

When I make a film - I direct my own film, I write my own script - that's what I want to hear from the audience. 'Oh, thank you, Jackie!'

In every movie I do have a dialogue.

When I'm making an American film, it's more safe because there are so many people on the set to watch me. Whatever I do, they say, 'What are you doing!? Tell me first!' There are so many restrictions.

Sometimes you think the movie is good and BOOM! Sometimes you think it's no good. BAAM! The movie business is a big gamble. You never know.

I love wushu a lot and I would love to see it included in future Olympic Games.