Yes, I was hired by Universal because they needed a comedy director. They had seen Scandal and liked it. I saw an opportunity even in those comedies to begin my project of American films.

You have to think with the heart.

Rock Hudson was not an educated man, but that very beautiful body of his was putty in my hands.

I worked for UFA as a set designer, you know.

My idea at this time, which was slowly developing, was to create a comedie humaine with little people, average people - samples from every period in American life.

If I couldn't read, I couldn't live.

I never regarded my pictures as very much to be proud of, except in this, the craft, the style.