Quotes

[on the enduring popularity of RoboCop (1987)] It was my contribution to cinema.

[on RoboCop 2 (1990)] There was a couple of things that made the character more human that weren't used. I can't remember exactly what the scenes were, I just remember wondering why they weren't in.

[on turning down RoboCop 3 (1993)] I have to say it didn't quite have the third great act that RoboCop (1987) had and, by the time I was into the second one, I knew I was tired of it, plus David Cronenberg had asked me to do Naked Lunch (1991) with him, so I was happy to do it, and was happy to be gone.

[Furthermore on RoboCop (1987)] Aside from the action-adventure, the corruption, corporate machinery gone berserk and so on, the heart of all this is a morality tale. It's like "Beauty and the Beast", or the Tin Man of "The Wizard of Oz". It's a great little jewel of a human story.

[on making the original RoboCop (1987)] When I was making it, I knew it was going to be a great thing, but you never know whether they are going to be successful or not. I knew we were making a fantastic social allegory, and, I don't want to sound pretentious, a spiritual one as well.

The best reason to go to the movies is to be with other people. Eating the popcorn, being with other people you don't know. You see, when people are rubbin' up against other people like that, under the environs of being entertained or communicated with, humanity's better off. People expand themselves, they get out of themselves. Love. Television doesn't do that. Television is an isolating experience, sadly enough. I'm sorry to say it. But as good as it ever gets, it's still isolating. You sit in your home and visit with no one. You drink your beer, eat your popcorn and be alone, that's what you do. With movies, you gotta get out, man. You gotta get out and be with people. And that's the best thing and that's the responsibility. Once people are out and in a movie theater, then you can inform them about themselves.

[on an actor's responsibility to his audience] To inform. That's it, to inform and entertain. But then only to inform. That means to expand an audience's sense of humanity. That's all.

I don't care for horror and fantasy films. I never go to see them in the theater. I know I've played in many of them, but I didn't do them because of their genre -- I did them just because I loved their scripts. I can't say why I like them so much on paper and dislike this kind of film so much on the screen. When I go to the movies, I like romance, comedy and thrillers. I hate gore.

My career was always full of risks one way or another, and that's the way I like it.