100 Paul Walker Quotes About Cars, Life, Love and Friends

“I’m just a simple guy. I like cars, girls and racing.”

These words, spoken by the late Paul Walker, perfectly sum up the actor and racer who was taken from us too soon. Walker was known for his roles in films such as “The Fast and the Furious” franchise and “Varsity Blues,” but to car enthusiasts everywhere, he will always be remembered as one of the greatest drivers on film. In honor of the life of this great man, we’ve gathered some of his best quotes about cars, life, love and friends.

Paul Walker Quotes

1. “Everyone has an opinion.” – Paul Walker
2. “My family’s really close.” – Paul Walker
3. “There’s more to life than movies.” – Paul Walker
4. “I’m really close to all of my family.” – Paul Walker
5. “I don’t go for the flash and panache.” – Paul Walker
6. “If I lost weight, I’d be two-dimensional!” – Paul Walker
7. “My motto is, you have to get in a sport a day.” – Paul Walker
8. “The whole thought of being a dad was scary to me.” – Paul Walker
9. “I want to have the freedom to do whatever I want.” – Paul Walker
10. “I love doing the action stuff. It’s soooo much fun!” – Paul Walker
11. “I wish I could be behind the wheel for every stunt.” – Paul Walker
12. “I’d like to live on horseback and just be a cowboy.” – Paul Walker
13. “I’m not afraid of anything. That’s just the way I am.” – Paul Walker
14. “Football was my sport. I was fast. I was a free safety.” – Paul Walker
15. “My mom’s hot. I mean she’s old, but my mom’s out of control.” – Paul Walker
16. “I’m not the kind of guy who’s taking advantage of my position.” – Paul Walker
17. “I’m a crazy car guy. I’ve got an airplane hangar full of cars.” – Paul Walker
18. “My father’s a protector. My father’s old-school. He’s a cowboy.” – Paul Walker
19. “If one day the speed kills me, do not cry because I was smiling.” – Paul Walker
20. “My philosophy is: If you can’t have fun, there’s no sense in doing it.” – Paul Walker
21. “It’s not about working anymore, its about doing work I can be proud of.” – Paul Walker
22. “If one day the speed kills me dont be sad because i will have died smiling” – Paul Walker
23. “I think my mom put it best. She said, ‘Little girls soften their daddy’s hearts.'” – Paul Walker
24. “If you spend any time with a man, you’ll realize that we’re all still little boys.” – Paul Walker
25. “I have a way of just being ice and just cooling situations and making things work.” – Paul Walker
26. “Sometimes the hurdles aren’t really hurdles at all. They’re welcome challenges, tests.” – Paul Walker
27. “I’m a surfer. I grew up in Southern California and used to surf twice a day, every day.” – Paul Walker
28. “You know, I’m a pretty mellow guy. I’m pretty easy-going. I see everyone’s perspective.” – Paul Walker
29. “I used to believe in one true soul mate, but not anymore. I believe you can have a few.” – Paul Walker
30. “My mom was always really healthy and cautious about her diet, so I’m not a big sugar guy.” – Paul Walker
31. “I don’t care what it is in life: listen to your heart. If you do, no matter what, you win.” – Paul Walker
32. “Attitude is attitude, whether you’re a West Coast gangster or East Coast gangster, you know?” – Paul Walker
33. “I’ve always wanted to race cars, even since I was a young boy, as I think a lot of guys have.” – Paul Walker
34. “I was definitely ahead of my friends. I was French-kissing girls way before anybody else was.” – Paul Walker
35. “I thought I’d just do a wave of movies, and then I’d burn out. They just kept coming together.” – Paul Walker
36. “I’m not affected by violence the way some people are. I don’t know why, but I enjoy that intensity.” – Paul Walker
37. “I’m one of those people that think certain things happen at certain times for all the right reasons.” – Paul Walker
38. “When I was younger, I was so damn pretty, I looked like a girl, so I understand why guys didn’t like me.” – Paul Walker
39. “My parents never looked at my acting as a career. They saw it as a way to help provide for the household.” – Paul Walker
40. “Remember that no matter how cool you think you may be, you’re not cool enough to look down on anyone…ever.” – Paul Walker
41. “The Fast’ is tough; it’s not easy. It represents too much to too many people. But that’s what also makes it fun.” – Paul Walker
42. “I like a woman that’s capable and at the same time feminine. I admire tomboy qualities but with a feminine touch.” – Paul Walker
43. “There’s a lot of guys that just get comfortable with their positions and rest on their laurels. I had to earn my way.” – Paul Walker
44. “I could take you for a walk on the beach and I could point out just about any creature and give you their Latin names.” – Paul Walker
45. “I sometimes struggle, because my job is like the antithesis of what surfing is all about. Surfing’s simple. It’s real.” – Paul Walker
46. “You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy. Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae.” – Paul Walker
47. “I’m not the least bit polished, I come from a blue collar background and I never thought I could feel comfortable around the English.” – Paul Walker
48. “I almost sabotaged my career. ‘The Fast and the Furious’ didn’t let me, and I’m grateful now. That franchise gave me the opportunity.” – Paul Walker
49. “In college, my friends called me Mr. James Bond 007 because I entertained everything: blonds, brunettes, redheads. I’m across the board.” – Paul Walker
50. “I learned a long time ago that if you subscribe and believe the good, you have to believe the bad. My measure is my heart and what I know.” – Paul Walker
51. “I’m a problem solver. I love people. The more complicated they are, the more I get into them, and I just want to understand what makes them tick.” – Paul Walker
52. “I really like the Evo from ‘2Fast.’ That car is a lot of fun as a daily driver. They’re really quick on the track, too, when they’re set up right.” – Paul Walker
53. “We’re only on the earth for a short period of time. Movies aren’t enough. I want to take my success and parlay it into something bigger and better.” – Paul Walker
54. “When I was younger, the pressure was just being cool. I never thought of myself as a cool guy. I always thought of myself as more of the goofy guy.” – Paul Walker
55. “I’m into being a dad, that’s where my focus is most of the time. I’m an actor that’s my job, but it’s not my life. I have a lot of other interests too.” – Paul Walker
56. “I wanna work with good people. I don’t want to work with screaming, yelling directors who’ve got daddy issues. I just don’t want to deal with those guys.” – Paul Walker
57. “I’m a doer, and whether it was the tsunami in Sri Lanka or the earthquake in Indonesia, I was always saying, ‘I should be there; I should be helping out.'” – Paul Walker
58. “There’s a time and place for everything, but as I get older, I like finding those human moments and really connecting. Maybe I’m not as cool as I once was.” – Paul Walker
59. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist. As you go through the grind and the distraction of a career, it’s easy to lose sight of your dreams.” – Paul Walker
60. “I grew up hunting and fishing. I’ve always been into archery. I’ve always been into cars… In my family, that was just stuff we did. That’s just the way it was.” – Paul Walker
61. “I surf; I skateboard. I’m from Southern California. I never thought I was going to be an actor. And to be honest with you, I never really thought of myself as one.” – Paul Walker
62. “I’ve been so transient, I’ve been on my own since I was 16. I didn’t even have my own place until I was 32 years old. I literally lived out of bags for 16-plus years.” – Paul Walker
63. “That’s one thing about Hollywood. People don’t always want what’s real. People always want a little more. So for me, it’s a compromise. Here you go, that hyper-reality.” – Paul Walker
64. “I hope I’m in a position to make stuff that I really want to make as opposed to stuff that I just have to make for money reasons, or to sustain a certain marquee value.” – Paul Walker
65. “Basically, you’re selling a world as an actor, right? I mean it’s like any sales person: if you believe in your product, you know your product, you sell it a lot better.” – Paul Walker
66. “The dream is to have it all. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Live this life, that life, this life, you know? You only live one time – I want to get it all in.” – Paul Walker
67. “Me and my buddies are all like brothers. So it’s okay for us to say ‘I love you’ or whatever. It’s always cool. I think that comes from my dad. That’s just the way he always was.” – Paul Walker
68. “I pack a toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant. That’s it. I don’t have the time or patience for anything else. I’m a natural kind of guy. I don’t style my hair – never learned how.” – Paul Walker
69. “Surfing soothes me, it’s always been a kind of Zen experience for me. The ocean is so magnificent, peaceful, and awesome. The rest of the world disappears for me when I’m on a wave.” – Paul Walker
70. “Maybe this is just horrible bad, but I think I’ve had enough successes to where the journey is more important to me now. There’s no guarantee, no matter what. We get one run in life.” – Paul Walker
71. “I have an airplane hangar with 17 cars in it. That’s no joke. I have a ‘half pipe’ in there, too – you know, like a big ramp, where I skateboard. It’s awesome. It’s the ultimate fantasy.” – Paul Walker
72. “I’m a science guy. I’m a geek. I love geology and botany and marine science. I thought maybe I’d be a professional guide, or maybe even a park ranger, working for the Department of Fish and Game.” – Paul Walker
73. “I want to wake up next to what I went to bed with. I need a girl who can get dressed up to come with me to things, but also one who isn’t afraid to get her fingernails dirty or chip her nail polish.” – Paul Walker
74. “I love long-range rifle shooting. I like anything that deals with precision. I also find that with archery. On my ranch, I have my own range with 3-D targets of animals and hay bales from different distances.” – Paul Walker
75. “I’m Brian a lot more than I’m Paul Walker, which is awesome. When I hear, ‘Hey Paul Walker!’ my hair stands up on the back of my neck. It’s uncomfortable. But when I hear, ‘It’s Brian!’ it’s cool. I like Brian.” – Paul Walker
76. “I’ve always been one foot in, one foot out of this game because I’m not comfortable with being on the pedestal or the poster. That’s just not who I am. I’m more like the grunt. I want to be the guy behind the guy.” – Paul Walker
77. “What I’ve found recently is the heart, the soul, whatever you want to call it, it doesn’t differentiate: If you really live the experience making a movie, it’s the same as living it in real life, as crazy as it sounds.” – Paul Walker
78. “The people I don’t understand are atheists. I go surfing and snowboarding, and I’m always around nature. I look at everything and think, ‘Who couldn’t believe there’s a God? Is all this a mistake?’ It just blows me away.” – Paul Walker
79. “As for Hollywood, I’ve got a killer job, and I’m having a blast. I have the luxury to go on trips whenever I want and invite my friends who can’t afford it. And, God willing, I’ll be able to do all that till the day I die.” – Paul Walker
80. “I have friends that are super talented, that are far more talented than I am in certain areas, but it just doesn’t happen for them. Sometimes you feel guilty for your success because you know people who deserve it way more.” – Paul Walker
81. “Surfing big waves is not an extreme sport to me. I fall off, tumble down, and come up. My heart’s racing because I’m thinking I almost drowned, and I thank God I can breathe again, but I always think, ‘What am I hitting?’ Water.” – Paul Walker
82. “I remember when I first came around, the computer-generated stuff was pretty wicked. I was like, ‘Wow!’ but I feel like then for the longest time, we saw so much of it, after a while, you might as well just be watching an animated movie.” – Paul Walker
83. “One game that drives me crazy, is when a guy gives the girl they really like more attention, and then they feel like maybe they pressed too hard, so they back way off and start giving other women attention. I’ve never pulled this myself.” – Paul Walker
84. “I thought I was a hippie, bro. I wore Birkenstocks every day. I went to a Christian high school, so I was pretty funky. The teachers didn’t give me a hard time, though, even though I was totally way out of line in terms of my dress code.” – Paul Walker
85. “I look at people in certain circumstances, and I fall into caretaker mode real quick, real easy. I like to shoulder people up and carry them along, and then I end up creating some kind of dependency. I enable. It’s really, really hard for me.” – Paul Walker
86. “I’m a pretty agile guy, especially being taller and having done martial arts from about the age of 13, but parkour is one of those sports that I wish I’d discovered sooner. When my nephew first showed me, I thought, ‘Damn – I’m too old for this.'” – Paul Walker
87. “The mornings along the coast where the fog and mist meet with the salty spray of the seas is one of my favourite smells. I love the smell in the evergreen forest just after it rains – The Redwood Forest in California has the coast, too, so you have the best of everything!” – Paul Walker
88. “I live by ‘Go big or go home.’ That’s with everything. It’s like either commit and go for it or don’t do it at all. I apply that to everything. I apply that to relationships, I apply that to like sports, I apply that to everything. That’s what I live by. That’s how I like it.” – Paul Walker
89. “Thing is, I went to a born-again Christian high school, was brought up in a traditional Mormon family where these ideas about parenting are of structure and sacrifice. To think outside of that idea of family and parenting that I’ve grown up with is tough but also very freeing.” – Paul Walker
90. “I fell in love with the ocean when I was just a little kid, four or five years old, I was a junior ranger, I was going out and doing intertidal stuff, walking around and sticking my finger in my first sea anemone and picking up starfish and all that. It gripped me when I was young.” – Paul Walker
91. “I don’t think of myself as a romantic person; I’m kind of more rough and tumble, I think. The things I’m drawn to are outdoorsy, I only get dressed up when I have to. I’m drawn to women who are into the same type of thing. If you’re going to call it romantic, I’m very spontaneous. That’s probably the best thing I have going for me.” – Paul Walker
92. “I just turned 40, and it’s weird to think that I’ve been doing this almost my whole life. I was a child actor and then didn’t do it through junior high and high school, then started up again in my late teens doing ‘Young and the Restless.’ Dabbled with school, went back to college, played around. I think I was doing Pleasantville at 23.” – Paul Walker
93. “I think that just sitting down and having casual conversation is the hardest stuff to do. But the extremes? I know what it feels like to come racing around the corner at 90 miles an hour, sliding the car sideways. I know what gear I’m hitting it in when I’m coming around the corner and where I need to downshift. So to me, that’s the fun stuff.” – Paul Walker
94. “I love ‘Donnie Brasco’ and ‘Days of Thunder,’ so after I did ‘The Skulls,’ I was like, ‘I want to be either an undercover cop, or I want to race cars!’ Universal came to me with a newspaper article about street racing in L.A., and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I grew up doing that right off Peoria in Sun Valley.’ They asked if I wanted to do it.” – Paul Walker
95. “I’m a car guy. When I get in a car, it’s not just transportation; it tells a story. It says something about who you are and where you’ve been. This ’67 Corvette is great example: It’s a classic, timeless machine that’ll never go out of style.” – Paul Walker
96. “I grew up around cars; my dad was really into them. In fact, his father was a driver in the first Indianapolis 500. But I never had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a real race car until I was 22, on the set of ‘Pleasantville.’ They needed somebody who could do a burnout, so I got to try it out.” – Paul Walker
97. “I like to work with my hands. I’m kind of a gearhead. I like to work on cars, and I’ve been getting more and more into motorcycles lately. It’s something I enjoy doing in my free time, when I’m not working or spending time with my daughter.” – Paul Walker
98. “I’ve been very fortunate to have some great mentors in my life, people who have really helped me and guided me. My dad was a big influence, of course, but also guys like Roger Rodas and Eric Peterson, who introduced me to the world of cars and racing.” – Paul Walker
99. “Racing is truly a way of life. It’s not just something I do on the weekends or when I have some free time; it’s a passion, it’s a part of who I am. And I think that comes across when you’re talking to other drivers or people in the industry.” – Paul Walker
100. “I love the smell of race gas. And burning rubber. To me, that’s the smell of success.” – Paul Walker

Wrapping Up

As you can see, Paul Walker was a man who loved cars, racing, and the outdoors. He was also a down to earth guy who was generous and kind. He will be missed by many, but his legacy will live on through his films and the charitable foundation that bears his name. What is your favorite Paul Walker quote? Let us know in the comments below.