I remember just before going onto the soundstage, I'd look in my dressing room mirror and stretch myself to my full 5'5" or 5'6 whatever it was-to make me appear taller and to make me able to dominate all the others and to mow them down with my size.

In those days I would go for an interview and find myself competing with this other chap who would always be younger and taller, and much handsomer than I.

To my mind, the actor has this great responsability of playing another human being… it’s like taking on another person’s life and you have to do it as sincerely and honestly as you can.

The sitting around on the set is awful. But I always figure that’s what they pay me for. The acting I do for free.

Nothing human is foreign to us

My father and uncles and all their friends turned their lungs black trying to satisfy my collector's zeal.

I had the advantage of reading the book, and when the script was first submitted to me, it was just another gangster story - the east side taking over the west side and all that.