On the decision to run...
"You have such a fantastic life, Arnold, you make millions of dollars to do movies and all those kinds of things, why do you want to do this?" [asked rhetorically].
"It's the most difficult [decision] I've made in my entire life, except the one I made in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax."

"I think that the only way that you really keep it a secret is by not telling anyone."

"And you know something, because everything that I've gotten -- my career, my money, my family - everything that I've gotten and achieved is because of California."

"And this is a process that was a very long and very difficult process, because you have to put all of those things on a scale. You have to put on a scale, you know, that you're stopping with the movie career, you're stopping some of the business relationships that make you a lot of money."

On multi-culturalism...
"I don't understand how they can call me anti-Latino, when I've made four movies in Mexico."

"It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, if you're young or old, what the racial thing is, nothing matters to me."

"After watching mulattas shake it, I can totally understand why Brazil is devoted to my favorite body part, the ass."

On the environment...
"Don't worry about that!"

On gay marriage...
"I don't want to get into that right now."

"No, I do not. I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman."

On Balancing the State Budget...
"The only way we can deal with those issues is by bringing business back to California, because businesses, when you bring them back to California, it brings revenue back to California. And when you have more revenue, you then can afford to take care of all those programs that need to be taken care of."

"We have to make sure everyone in California has a great job. A fantastic job!"

"The public doesn't care about figures" [asked if he would provide details on budget cuts]

"Like I told Warren, if he mentions Prop 13 one more time, he has to do 500 situps."

"Needless, to say the elephant in the room in California's economy is the irresponsible operating deficit and the massive debt"

"Right now we are over-regulating and overtaxing people. Other states come and say, 'We have less regulation; come to us.' What you see right now is a huge exodus of people expanding outside the state."

On political independence...
"As you know, I don't need to take any money from anybody. I have plenty of money myself. I will make the decisions for the people."

"I was always dreaming about very powerful people, dictators and things like that. I was always impressed by people who could be remembered for hundreds of years or like Jesus for thousands of years." (from "Pumping Iron")

"I am trained to get along with Democrats"

"[I will be] going to Sacramento as an independent."

"I am all the way with him and always will be supportive of him." [on President Bush]

On gun control...
"I don't run around every day with a gun in my hand. So I want kids to understand the difference; one is make believe, like we do in the movies. But in reality, I'm for gun control. I'm a peace-loving guy."

On past indiscretions...
"Nothing will haunt me"

"I have inhaled, exhaled everything."

"Yes, grass and hash--no hard drugs. But the point is that I do what I feel like doing. I'm not on a health kick."

"Bodybuilders party a lot, and once, in Gold's - the gym in Venice, California, where all the top guys train - there was a black girl who came out naked. Everybody jumped on her and took her upstairs, where we all got together."

"I never lived my life to be a politician. I never lived my life to be the governor of California."

"Obviously, I've made statements that were ludicrous and crazy and outrageous and all those things, because that's the way I always was."

"I was always outrageous, otherwise I wouldn't have done the things that I did in my career, with the bodybuilding and the show business and all those things. I was always out there."

"I think that I don't remember the details. I just know that the '70s were outrageous kind of a decade, that we promoted bodybuilding, that we said outrageous things in order to get the attention and all that stuff, and I have the utmost respect for women and I have not meant to hurt anybody or anything like this. I don't even know what it says. I've not read the article." [on the 1977 Oui interview]

On family values -

[on why he was speaking at an event] "Since I had nothing better to do. I can't get any jobs and my wife is too pregnant to fool around with"

"I will have to get into that. I mean, because, as you know, I'm very much for families, I'm very much for children and children's issues and all that stuff. I think that the children should have the first call in our treasury. This is the - the most precious resource that we have. We have to think about the future of the state. Children are the most important thing, and we have to help the families." [response to whether he would repeal the family leave act]

[asked what is the most pressing problem in the inner city] "The parenting problem."

"My mother would spend time with me, saying read out loud. When I stopped, with a yardstick, she would hit me over de head. Do you know how fast I read again? I was reading so fast, let me tell you."

"There are two things at work here. Since the '60s, many more women have gone to work outside the home. The husband is at work, the mother is at work. Now the kids are always alone. As a country, we have to supplement where there is a vacuum."

"My mother called me on the phone and she said, you know, "Your dad died." And this was exactly two months before a contest. She said, "Are you coming home to the funeral?" I said, "No, it's too late. You know, he's dead, there's nothing to be done. And I'm sorry and I can't come, you know?" (from "Pumping Iron")

On the status of women...
"Whatever I thought might hold me back, I avoided. I crossed girls off my list -- except as tools for my sexual needs."

"If I see a girl with big tits, I'm going to stare and stare. And I'm going to think in my mind what I am going to do with her if I would have her."

"Having chicks around is the kind of thing that breaks up the intense training. It gives you relief, and then afterward you go back to the serious stuff."

"But no one that has been around me would believe that a woman would be complaining about me holding her."

"It was a handful. I never know if my wife’s watching. I’ll tell her it was a stuntman." [after touching British TV host's breast on air]

"The women should have the choice. The women should decide what they want to do with their bodies. I'm all for that." [on abortion]

"Now, I would just like to say thank you very much to my wonderful wife, who is the greatest wife in the world and the greatest friend that I have - I want to thank her for being here with me, for being such a great partner, and Maria if you don’t mind to say a few words also, big hand for my wife Maria!" [announcing his candidacy]

"Your daughter has a great butt" [to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Arnold's future mother-in-law, shortly after meeting Maria]

"Any woman who thinks, 'My biological clock is ticking and I want a baby and it doesn't matter if I have a husband or not' - well, without running anyone down, that is a mistake."

[discussing a scene in T3, in which he pushes the female cyborg's face into a toilet bowl] "I saw this toilet bowl. How many times do you get away with this -- to take a woman, grab her upside down, and bury her face in a toilet bowl? I wanted to have something floating there... The thing is, you can do it, because in the end, I didn't do it to a woman - she's a machine! We could get away with it without being crucified by who-knows-what group."

[after Sylvester Stallone invited him to join an all-male club]"I told him it was the worst thing he could do. That we're living in a very sensitive time period, when women were struggling for equality. I said I didn't agree with half the stuff they were talking about, but a club like that would offend every smart woman in the country."

"As much as when you see a blonde with great tits and a great ass, you say to yourself, 'Hey, she must be stupid or must have nothing else to offer', which maybe is the case many times. But then again there is the one that is as smart as her breasts look, great as her face looks, beautiful as her whole body looks gorgeous, you know, so people are shocked."

On taxes
"From the time they get up in the morning and flush the toilet, they're taxed. Then they go and get the cup of coffee, they're taxed... This goes on all day long. Tax, tax, tax."

On the current administration...
"The special interests are financing the campaigns of Bustamante and of Davis. I mean, those are the twin Terminators of Sacramento."

"This administration is not representing you. It is not representing you. It is not repre-senting you. It is not represen-ting you. It is not representing you. It is representing special interests. We've got to get rid of them."

"We have such a great state, there's no reason why we are in the state we are in today"

"This is really embarrassing. I just forgot our state governor's name, but I know that you will help me *recall* him." [laughs]

"They fiddle, they fumble, and they fail."

"I will go to Sacramento, and I will clean house"

"What we have to do is get rid of an administration that is in the pockets of all the special interests."

"It goes back to the old thing - the contributions come in, the favors go out and the people suffer."

On ambition...
"You have to do everything possible to win no matter what."
 
"I was born to be a leader. I love the fact that millions of people look up to me."

"I will not change. Because if you are successful and you change, you are an idiot."

"I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way -- I hope it never will.'"

On if he wins...
"We want to create, again, a positive business environment here and make people happy."

"Everyone in Sacramento will have more details than I have, but I know exactly what needs to be done."

"If the special interests try to push me around I will push back."

"The first thing I would do when I go to Sacramento is put a spending cap on those politicians because they just can't help themselves. They're addicts and they should go to an addiction place."

"I will be governor for the people for a change because, because I want to represent the people because the only thing that counts for me is the people."

"I can promise you that when I go to Sacramento I will pump up Sacramento."

"In bodybuilding, I trained five hours a day. I made sure that no stone was unturned. I did not want to go competition and then maybe lose, and say, 'You know, I could have taken care of my diet, I should have had less calorie intake. The same is here - I want to go from morning to night, work every day, seven days a week."

"I want to be a governor that is for the people, for everyone, no matter what your age is, your political (affiliation)"

"You have to unite people. There are bright people in Sacramento, we need to reunite the parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, not to divide them. Let them both make decisions, and really work to a positive end rather than always fighting."

"A governor has to bring people together. A governor has to have vision, the governor has to go after that vision and those goals, and then solve the problems."

"I promise you, I promise you that if I get elected to be governor of this great state I will continue on my crusade for this state and across the country to make sure that... after-school programs will be made available in every public school in the whole United States."
 
On the Republican Party...
"Humphrey stood for the government will solve all your problems. Nixon said no, free to choose, let the people decide. So I said to my friend, which party is Nixon? He said, Republican. OK, I said, I'm a Republican."
 
"That was another thing I will never forgive the Republican Party for. I was ashamed to call myself a Republican during that period" [on the Clinton impeachment]

On the importance of exercise...
"It is as satisfying to me as coming is - you know, as having sex with a woman and coming. So can you believe how much I am in heaven? I am, like, getting the feeling of coming in the gym. I'm getting the feeling of coming at home. I'm getting the feeling of coming backstage when I pump up.When I pose out in front of 5.000 people I get the same feeling. So I'm coming day and night."

"Bodybuilder's cocks are the same size as everyone else's. You can't make it bigger through exercise, that's for sure."

"I can look at a chick who's a little out of shape and if she turns me on, I won't hesitate to date her. If she's a good fuck, she can weigh 150 pounds, I don't care."

"[men] shouldn't feel like fags just because they want to have nice-looking bodies."

"Pumping iron is a great feeling...like coming, but coming continuously."

"The two together - the connection - that's where it's at, whether you're doing a bench press, a business deal, or just fucking."

On his finances...
[on Today show, interviewed by Matt Lauer, end of interview]
Matt:  "Will you be releasing your tax records publicly for the citizens of CA to examine?"
Arnold: (in a remote studio), holding hand up to ear:  "What was that?"
Matt:  "I asked if you would release your tax records to the public?"
Arnold: still holding hand up to ear, now looking around his remote studio:  "I can’t hear, I’ve lost the connection..."

On his campaign...
"I know how to sell something. I had to sell bodybuilding when nobody knew what bodybuilding was in this country - and we did it. And I had to sell myself as an action hero, which wasn't easy when everyone said, 'Hey, your name is Schwartzenstein' or something like that. And you have an accent. You have this overdeveloped body. No one could ever be successful with this kind of a combination. And I did it, because I sold myself to the American people and the people around the world. And the same is here. It's up to me to sell to the people and to convince the people that I can do the job.''

On the war in Iraq...
"I supported the war on Iraq, and as a matter of fact I was over there visiting the troops in Iraq and in Kuwait, they are very brave soldiers and they are risking their lives for this country, so that you and I have the freedom, so we can enjoy and do business here, and so we can become rich or so the people who live here have the right to be protected, I believe in all that, yes."

On personal attacks...
"This guy owes me bacon now. I mean there's no two ways about it because, I mean, you can't just have eggs without bacon. But this is all part of, you know, the free speech." [after being hit by egg thrown by protestor]

"I only play a machine but I'm really a human being."

On debating...
"One of my favorite things to do is stand there with people and debate over the issues and then let the people decide."

"We're going to do one of the debates. It's going to be great for the California broadcasters. There's going to be a fantastic debate."

"It is important for me to be part of [the California Broadcasters' Association] debate. The rest of the time, I will be traveling up and down the state campaigning; getting the message out there; knocking on doors; going to TV stations, radio stations; talking to the journalists. By the time we are through with this campaign, you guys will be sick of me. Trust me."