Tough guy Clint Eastwood in artistic photo by Anton Corbijn

According to Italian director Sergio Leone, the actor Clint Eastwood could bring sparkle to the screen despite having only two facial expressions: one with a hat and the other without it.

As a director and even as a politician, however, Clint Eastwood was a versatile and admirable fellow. On the last day of May, the famed tough guy turned 82 years of age. After hundreds of memorable movies, duels and fights in the cinema, today he lives a tranquil life in the city of Carmel, California—where he once served as mayor.

The winner of four Oscars, Clint offered valuable lessons in a 2008 interview with Esquire magazine, reproduced in Brazil by Piauí magazine last month.

What follows are the finest life lessons the eternal “Dirty Harry” had to offer Jiu-Jitsu practitioners:

1. CREATIVITY IS THE COURAGE TO DO

“We were doing In the Line of Fire, and John Malkovich was on top of the building, and he has me in a real precarious situation. My character is crazed and he pulls out a gun and sticks it into John’s face, and John puts his mouth over the end of the gun. Now, I don’t know what kind of crazy symbol that was. We certainly didn’t rehearse anything like that. I’m sure he didn’t think about it while we were practicing it. It was just there. Like Sir Edmund Hillary talking about why you do anything: Because it’s there. That’s why you climb Everest. It’s like a little moment in time, and as fast as it comes into your brain, you just throw it out and discard it. Do it before you discard it, you know?”

2. PRIZES AND TROPHIES

“Million Dollar Baby won the Academy Award. That was nice, that was great. But you don’t dwell on it. An awful lot of good pictures haven’t won Academy Awards, so it doesn’t have much bearing. … In the end, you’ve just got to be happy with what you’ve done. There you are.”

3. BULLYING

“We live in more of a pussy generation now, where everybody’s become used to saying, “Well, how do we handle it psychologically?” In those days, you just punched the bully back and duked it out. Even if the guy was older and could push you around, at least you were respected for fighting back, and you’d be left alone from then on.”

4. THE SECRET OF LIFE

“Children teach you that you can still be humbled by life, that you learn something new all the time. That’s the secret to life, really — never stop learning. It’s the secret to career. I’m still working because I learn something new all the time. It’s the secret to relationships. Never think you’ve got it all.”

To read the original interview in its entirety, click here.

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