Quotes

[during a 1987 interview] "I haven't had a drink in, oh, five years now. I finally wised up. I'd say it was about time. Heck, I threw away about seven careers through drink."

In 1964, I was arrested and convicted for third degree assault after this cab driver said that I tried to choke him. The whole beef could have been settled for $1.45. That's what the cabbie wanted, but I wasn't going to pay because I didn't like the way he was driving. So this cop comes along and says, 'Why don't you pay him the $1.45?' and I said to the cop, 'What the hell are you, a collection agency?' and the first thing you know I was under arrest. I just reached over the cabbie's shoulder to turn off the ignition and he said I was trying to strangle him. But all that's academic because they found me guilty anyway.

[on his role as John Dillinger] I never thought of myself as that kind of guy. I thought of myself as a nice guy who wouldn't do rotten things. But obviously that miserable son-of-a-bitch in the film would! I hated that character so much, but I had to do it for the picture.

[in 1947] I haven't had a drink in three weeks. When I drink, I drink a lot of it, and when I drink a lot of it, I'm just as likely as not to climb a wall.

[interview with National Enquirer on his stalled career in the 1970s] Basically, I need a job. I'm still alive, but not doing well. I had a big problem with alcohol, but I don't drink anymore. I began drinking very heavily and getting into trouble. I used to hit the headlines with all this nonsense: bad behavior, drunken brawls. I'd look to do a film... a good film. I'm a good actor, and I'm ready to go. But reputations are hard to live down.