R. Lee Ermey's Quotes

I spend a lot of time with my characters.

I try to get over to Iraq and Afghanistan as much as I can.

I was stationed at a marine recruit depot in San Diego from 1965 to 1967.

I'm never, like I say, I'm never happy, I'm never satisfied, it's never good enough.

I've never had to spend any time in the VA hospital, so I really can't speak for those guys.

In order to be a good actor, I'm a firm believer that you need to bring something to the table.

It's been a pretty fun ride, to tell you the truth.

Kubrick ate it up. He loved it. He just let me go crazy.

Kubrick's films have life - they just never die.

The bad news motivated the drill instructors that much more.

There have been a lot of changes in recruit training in the past twenty years.

Back in the old Corp, we weren't training those privates to infiltrate into the peacetime Marine Corp. We were training those privates to go to Vietnam.

You'd be surprised how many kids and young people come to the website and send me email that they are actually going into the Marine Corp because of something that I said or did.

Every character I've ever played, I always try to take him right to the edge and not allow him to fall over, but directors have a tendency to pull me back a little bit.

I got space from Travis Air Force Base, went back to the Philippine Islands and made it a point to meet the only American casting director in the Philippines. I was off and running.

There was a huge, tremendous amount of disabled veterans and the Veteran's Administration just wasn't geared up for it. I know for a fact that it's getting better and better.

We had times in '66 and '67 when we would pick up a platoon of privates out of the receiving barracks the week before we even graduated the platoon that we were on!

When you try to find funding for a VVA function, it doesn't seem like it's any trouble at all. People come out of the woodwork with their money to help out because we went over and fought a war.

I firmly believe that you live and learn, and if you don't learn from past mistakes, then you need to be drug out and shot.

There's a lot of whiners in every crowd.

It's my firm conviction that when Uncle Sam calls, by God we go, and we do the best that we can.

I hate to hear 'Less is more.' It's a crock of crap.

Without discipline, there is no Marine Corp.