Audiences just naturally hate me on screen. I could play a role in a tuxedo and people would think I was rotten. You can do much more with a villain …

- Lee Van Cleef

One day, something happened. It made life very precious to me.

- Lee Van Cleef

Bad guys have always been my bag... I look mean without even trying.

- Lee Van Cleef

You go where the work is. It can be in my own back yard, Israel, Spain, or Yugoslavia. We may have the greatest technical efficiency in the world, bu…

- Lee Van Cleef

I think the Europeans are a lot more spontaneous, more artistic to some degree. But I don't think they have the technical talent we do here in the st…

- Lee Van Cleef

I tried to learn the languages - Italian, Spanish, and German - not to successfully. Working on a European set isn't a hell of a lot different from w…

- Lee Van Cleef

If I could direct it [films] I would be very happy. But the economics of business don't always allow you to do what you want.

- Lee Van Cleef

A lot of actors think that the more lines they have the more attention they get. That's bullshit. I make people look at me. I don't have to say a lot…

- Lee Van Cleef

Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me.

- Lee Van Cleef