I was shaped by the heroes in the films I saw, which you always want to emulate and be like. I wanted to be like Alan Ladd, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart. – Robert Osborne
When I was growing up, you’d read about actors, and they’d never tell you their age and how much they made a year as part of their definition. – Robert Osborne
I liked ‘The Help,’ and I love Viola Davis. But I didn’t think that film was a great film; I thought that was a very uneven film. I thought the Southern women were so caricatured that it was kind of like ‘Harper Valley PTA’ or something like that. – Robert Osborne
My love of movies started when I was 7 years old, living in a small town, going to the movies all the time, and finding the people in the movies more interesting than the people in my small town. Also, at that time, it wasn’t that easy to find out about movies. – Robert Osborne
My folks were busy. My dad was a teacher, and it was during the Second World War, and my mother was working. So I got my stories from films and books. I read a lot, and I love to read to this day. – Robert Osborne
I used to write stories a lot because you had to fill your hours some other way than watching television. So my imagination was vivid, and I used to write a lot of stories. I wrote a novel, which I still have, which is so awful. – Robert Osborne
For some reason, the movies in the ’40s have the best personalities: Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, and all those people. For some reason, I seem to gravitate more toward the ’40s, and I don’t necessarily know why. I just love the people. – Robert Osborne
There’s a lot of movies that aren’t all about Christmas, or where Christmas isn’t the focus, but have that spirit of Christmas in them. I love that sequence in ‘Auntie Mame,’ where she’s in the department store, sewing at Macy’s, and she doesn’t know how to do anything but fill out a form as ‘cash on delivery!’ – Robert Osborne
The weird thing with ‘Kismet’ is that Vincente Minnelli didn’t know what to do with a Cinemascope camera for that film – so he never moved it! It’s like in the old days when sound first came in and was so complicated that the camera just sat there. There are hardly any close-ups in ‘Kismet,’ so everything’s at a bit of a distance. – Robert Osborne
I always knew I was going to be successful in some way with films. I don’t know why. I had no particular talent, but I always knew I was going to be sitting in a dining room with Lucille Ball and at a cocktail party with Bette Davis. – Robert Osborne
There’s an excellent movie we have on TCM called ‘It Happened on Fifth Avenue,’ which was originally going to be directed by Frank Capra… but just before he was going to start working on it, he came across this story called ‘The Greatest Gift.’ And that turned into ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ – Robert Osborne
I did love ‘The Artist.’ I’ve seen it four times, and every time I see it, it gets better and better. – Robert Osborne
I think that no matter whether you’re Quentin Tarantino or any other kind of a rebel, or whatever, everyone who makes movies still wants to win an Academy Award, because it’s like the Pulitzer Prize or the Congressional Medal of Honor. – Robert Osborne
When a movie opened – if you lived in New York, you would see it at Radio City Music Hall where it would play a couple of weeks, and then you moved on to the next movie. Now you can see it the rest of your life – it’s going to be on Netflix and DVD. – Robert Osborne
If they didn’t have an Oscar for people to shoot for, all they’d do is be making ‘Dumb And Dumber’ again and again. – Robert Osborne
I did see ‘Gravity,’ but I don’t have the enthusiasm to go see a movie as often as I used to go. – Robert Osborne
There comes a time when even icons, if they choose to do so, should be allowed to enjoy life out of the spotlight. – Robert Osborne
For a lot of filmmakers, their first goal is to be successful and make some money. But once people start doing that, the real goal is then to win an Academy Award. Because when they do, they know that their obit is going to start out, ‘Academy Award winner so-and-so.’ – Robert Osborne
I think there’s something about traveling in airplanes all the time that’s not the healthiest thing in the world for you. – Robert Osborne
Lana Turner was adorable and funny. Jimmy Stewart was such a nice person. I quickly realized that if you’re not a nice person, you’re not going to last in this business. I mean, once your box office starts to drop off, like Veronica Lake, they’ll get rid of you fast. – Robert Osborne
One movie I think is just terrific is ‘Bernie,’ with Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine. That was a great surprise to me – so witty, so entertaining, a true story, and I’m not a great Jack Black fan, but he’s great in it. I think it’s a gem. – Robert Osborne
I love to be able to meet people who are successful, and I love them not because they’re successful, but usually people who are successful have qualities that make them interesting to be around. – Robert Osborne
