Quote collection
252 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"There's probably no one who understands Method acting better academically than I do, or actually uses it more in his work. But it's funny - nobody really sees that. It's perception versus reality, I suppose."
"Always try in interviews to avoid the cliches about the problems of public life."
"I'm a scamp. I don't deny it. I like myself."
"I guess this proves there are as many nuts in the Academy as anywhere else."
"I have given a name to my pain, and it is Batman."
"I respect the social graces enormously. How to pass the food. Don't yell from one room to another. Don't go through a closed door without a knock. Open the doors for the ladies. All these millions of simple household behaviors make for a better life. We can't live in constant rebellion against our parents - it's just silly. I'm very well mannered. It's not an abstract thing. It's a shared language of expectations."
"It's difficult for people sometimes to recognise when they're happy. People sometimes seem to me to be afraid to be happy."
"For a long time, I was afraid to be alone. I had to learn how to be alone. And there are still times when I think, Uh-oh! I gotta talk to somebody here or I'm gonna go crazy! But I like to be alone. Now I do. I really do. There's a big luxury in solitude."
"I certainly knew my father. He just didn't happen to be my biological father."
"The stage has a certain discipline. But the ultimate standard is more exacting in film, because you have to see yourself and you are your own toughest critic."
"I would never complain about my life, even though I really would like to have a mate."
"I do pray. I pray to something...up there. I have a God sense. It's not religious so much as superstitious. It's part of being human, I guess."
"My only emotion is gratitude, literally, for my life."
"I was invited to join the MGM cartoon department. But if I'd started work in animation I'd have had to take a cut in salary, so I didn't."
"If you want your freedom, you have to be willing to work hard to exercise it."
"You are more thoughtful because you don't act as quickly anymore. When I turned 70 it was the first time I felt young for my age. Fifty dropped on me like a ton of bricks - there is something about that number - but when 70 came along I felt good about it."
"I resist all established beliefs. My religion basically is to be immediate, to live in the now."
"I want a big 25-foot pink statue that holds my grave. Or I also might like the way the Indians did it. They hang you up on the top of a tree and the birds eat you. No, really I would probably choose cremating."
"I don't want people to know what I'm actually like. It's not good for an actor."
"I think human beings have a basic instinct to be free and explore their world in their own way. I've always been driven to look at life as something which we should try to plunge into rather than sit back. You have to be able to have fun and keep creating a sense of excitement to how you approach the world."