"I've always had deep faith that there is a Supreme Being, there has to be.
To me that's just a normal thing to have that kind of faith.
The fact that He's let me stick around a little longer,
or She's let me stick around a little longer,
certainly goes great with me--
and I want to hang around as long as I'm healthy and not in anybody's way."
From "The Green Berets":
"When I saw what our boys were going through--hell--and how the morale was holding up, and the job they were doing, I just knew they had to make this picture."
"We've made mistakes along the way,
but that's no reason to start tearing up
the best flag God ever gave to any country."
"I am a demonstrative man, a baby picker-upper,
a hugger and a kisser--that's my nature."
On His Wife, Pilar:
"I can tell you why I love her.
I have a lust for her dignity.
I look at her wonderfully classic face,
and I see hidden in it a sense of humor that I love.
I think of wonderful, exciting, decent things when I look at her..."
"You know, I hear everybody talking about the generation gap.
Frankly, sometimes I don't know what they're talking about.
Heck, by now I should know a little bit about it,
if I'm ever going to.
I have seven kids and eighteen grandkids
and I don't seem to have any trouble talking to any of them.
Never have had, and I don't intend to start now."
Maureen O'Hara on John Wayne:
"He's the softest, kindest, warmest, most loyal human I've ever known."
John Wayne on Faith:
"When the road looks rough ahead,
remember the 'Man Upstairs' and the word H-O-P-E.
Hang onto both and 'Tough it out'."
John Wayne to his Tennessee volunteers in 'THE ALAMO':
"There's right and there's wrong.
You gotta do one or the other.
You do the one, and you're living.
You do the other,
and you may be walking around, but you're as dead as a beaver hat."
John Wayne to Robert Duvall in 'TRUE GRIT':
"I aim to kill you in one minute, Ned,
or see you hang at Judge Parker's convience...
Which will it be?"
John Wayne finally winning best actor for 'TRUE GRIT':
"Wow! If I had known,
I would have put that eye patch on 35 years earlier."
John Wayne, honorary oscar speach 1979,
two months later the cancer-stricken star died:
"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Your applause is just about the only medicine a fella would ever need.
I'm mighty pleased I can amble here tonight.
Oscar and I have something in common.
Oscar first came on the Hollywood scene in 1928.
So did I.
We're both a little weatherbeaten,
but we're still here and plan to be around a whole lot longer."
Excerpt taken from the obituary of John Wayne:
"...He was a conservative folk hero,
symbolizing rugged, uncomplicated Americanism and anti-communism..."
Final line in 'DUKE;'
The Life and Times of John Wayne' by Donald Shepherd, Robert Slatzer, and Dave Grayson:
"Marion Michael Morrison lies in an unmarked grave by the sea,
but to his fans the world over, John Wayne lives".
MY FAVORITE MOVIE ACTOR!
This sums it all up for ME
Lamarr Vansteenburg
May 26, 2003
