Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.

- James Cagney

Find your mark, look the other fellow in the eye, and tell the truth.

- James Cagney

Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.

- James Cagney

My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those mi…

- James Cagney

Perhaps people, and kids especially, are spoiled today, because all the kids today have cars, it seems. When I was young you were lucky to have a bik…

- James Cagney

Outside of my family, the prime concern of my life has been nature and its order, and how we have been savagely altering that order.

- James Cagney

There's not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean ever…

- James Cagney

You dirty, double-crossing rat.

- James Cagney

I never had the slightest difficulty with a fellow actor. Not until One, Two, Three. In that picture, Horst Buchholz tried all sorts of scene-stealin…

- James Cagney