Quotes

I've made some of the greatest films ever made--and a lot of crap, too.

[his last words before passing away in Milan, Italy] Milan. What a beautiful place to die.

As for making movies, who can act at eight o'clock in the morning? Let's face it!

Directors never direct me. They just turn me loose.

[on Darryl F. Zanuck] Nobody liked working for Zanuck, the little goddamn Napoleon, always walking around with his polo mallet. Nobody had any respect for him except as an executive. And he was a good editor at one time, but he fancied himself a writer, and he was not a good writer.

[on Cecil B. DeMille] I was very fond of him. I never saw him direct an actor; his specialty was the camera. He simply hired the best actors he could get and let them do their job. He didn't interfere with them unless something was drastically wrong. DeMille's specialty was the camera, the pageantry.

[on John Ford] Oh, Ford was a peculiar man. You had to know how to handle him. Actors were terrified of him because he liked to terrify them. He was a sadist.

I am a ham! And the ham in an actor is what makes him interesting.

Lionel Barrymore then had hands like mine are now--arthritic talons.

Never do anything you wouldn't want to be caught dead doing.

[In 1972] I still have an awful load to carry. I've been carrying a heavy load for thirty years. My youngest son is only 16; my next boy is 22. I've got a ways to go before I can call my life my own.

[In 1973] I know, of course, that no self estimate is sure, but I think I'm better at acting than I am at dairy farming.

[on Bela Lugosi] Oh, he was a charming man. He always had a bucket of red wine on the set which he pulled out gracefully all day long. He never forgot his line . . . he never lost his affability. He was a very affable man.

[on Cedric Hardwicke] He had a wonderful quality that I noticed even before I ever met him. A wonderful quality of stillness in his face. Not a muscle ever moved, yet he conveyed wonderful things.

Read all the [William Shakespeare] you can. If you play Shakespeare, you can play anything.

I never made big money in Hollywood. I was paid in hundreds, the stars got thousands. But I worked with some of the greatest directors in films, and some of the greatest writers. They gave me freedom to do what I can do best and that was gratifying.