Best quotes by Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan

Hong Kong actor, director, martial artist and stuntman

Datuk Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), born Chan Kong-sang and known professionally as Jackie Chan, is a Hong Kong actor, director, martial artist and stuntman known for his slapstick acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs himself. Chan has been acting since the 1960s, performing in more than 150 films. He is one of the most popular action film stars of all time.

Chan is one of the most recognisable and influential film personalities in the world, and he gained a widespread global following in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. He has received fame stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, films and video games. He is an operatically trained vocalist and is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of music albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred. He is also a globally known philanthropist and has been named as one of the top 10 most charitable celebrities by Forbes magazine. In 2004, film scholar Andrew Willis stated that Chan was perhaps the "most recognised film star in the world". In 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $350 million, and as of 2016, he was the second-highest-paid actor in the world.

Since 2013, Chan has been a pro-Communist politician, serving in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After the Hong Kong electoral reform in 2021, Chan became an Election Committee member and could vote for the Chief Executive.

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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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

I am really, really tired.

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

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

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.

Fifteen years ago, I really give up American market.

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

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

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.

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?'.

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.

Most of the time I'm not even working, I'm just helping people, because I feel that I am too lucky. If there really is a god, then he really looks after me. All these years he's taken care of me, my career keeps getting better and better. Whatever I want just seems to come. And it keeps coming. So I promised myself that I have to pay for this, payback society. So this is why I started my Jackie Chan Foundation to help children and sick kids and people in hospitals.

I asked each if [Yao Xingtong and Zhang Lanxin] was afraid of heights. Each said no, and although they had never had the action movie experience they were willing to be trained. Then I asked if they could swim, and each said yes, but she (gestures toward YX) is better. She said, I can also dive, in fact I once won a diving championship in an international competition. Then she said, "But big brother, I'm not very strong," and I said that's all right.

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.

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.

I'm very pessimistic about that, no matter how hard we may try. The Chinese market is huge, but out of last year's $2 billion box office, $1.8 billion was taken in by foreign movies, and just $200 million by our own movies, no matter how much we have learned of their techniques, or their good practices. The Hollywood movies imported into China are all good movies; does the U.S. make lousy movies? Yes, too many lousy movies, but the imports are good films, so how can they not be box office hits? They're all hits.

I only want my work to make people happy.

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.

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

It only hurts when I'm not laughing.

One thing we haven't mentioned is something everyone should understand very clearly. Look at the budget that was invested in 'Avatar': who in China has that kind of money to spend on making a movie? So we as Chinese filmmakers should work together to make Chinese movies that can compete as best we can for Chinese audiences, not make lousy movies, but make the best we can for that audience. Concentrate the money, the talent we have on making good movies [for China].

I want to be an Asian Robert De Niro.

I want to show audiences I can act.

I hate interviews - but you have to do them.

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.

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

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."

Of course I get hurt.

Stigma hurts. Because of AIDS, children are bullied, isolated and shut out of school. They are missing out on education. They are missing out on medicines. Children are missing your love, care and protection. Join me. And become a stigma buster. UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS

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

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.

First, there are many who can fight, but they're small in stature; Zhang Lanxin is 177 cm [5'9"+] tall, with very long hands and legs, and very quick. In the scenes, I tried to show all of her special strengths and qualities. Plus, Zhang Lanxin has extraordinary staying power: it was only yesterday at the airport that I saw her cell phone photos from the hospital where she was having blood clots in her knee being cleared up, and I hadn't known till then that she had this problem.

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

The movie business is a big gamble.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

In my view, Zhang Lanxin is one of our best female martial artists, and I can't rate her highly enough.

I know I have to run 20 more minutes if I eat ice cream. Basically, I eat everything, but I just do more training.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Coffee is a language in itself.

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

Being still and doing nothing are two completely different things

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.

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.

As one tale ends, so another begins.

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

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.