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.

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.

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.

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.

I have not collected art. Art collected me. I never found paintings. They found me. I have never even owned a work of art. They owned me.

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

Of course, I started as a collector. A true collector. I can remember as if it were only yesterday the heart-pounding excitement as I spread out upon the floor of my bedroom The Edward G. Robinson Collection of Rare Cigar Bands. I didn't play at collecting. No cigar anywhere was safe from me.