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[in 1996, on why he left the film industry] I'd had a nervous breakdown over Sharon Tate's death. I had done three pictures in a row in Europe, and had so many love affairs I was exhausted. I was tired, man.

But you know, I loved David [David Lean], and he liked me and we got along great most of the time. Just a few times it was head-to-head. But I totally respected him. A brilliant director. The best there was.

I never took the resemblance and comparisons to Dean [James Dean] too seriously, I felt that I had talent in my own right.

[on visiting James Dean's family while AWOL from the army] The Winslows were very nice people and made me feel right at home. Marcus [Dean's cousin] was not home, I suppose he may have been in school. They took me up to Jimmy's room where his Levis were lying on the bed waiting for him to jump into them and there were several pairs of boots on the floor just where he had left them. His uncle showed me his motorcycle and took me to the barn to see Jimmy's handprint they had put in the cement when he was nine years old. He also told me Jimmy fell while he was playing and his father made him a plate which he wore for the rest of his life.

[1966 magazine interview] I adored movies. Everything was so clean and uncomplicated in the movies. All those important people in their big houses. That was my ideal. I wanted to be a movie star. The movies kept me going for a long time. They kept me going until I learned in New York three years ago that there is no ideal, that there are very few people who aren't hypocrites.

I am happy. Everyone has regrets, but I don't have many that I want to talk about. I did exactly as I pleased -- within my world. [Interview with Jim Mueller, 2000]