We treat old people so badly. There is nothing easy about 80.

The only tool we have as artists is selectivity. If you're a painter, you select the color, the lines, how severe they should be. As an actor you develop how angry you should be. You select how angry you should be. You listen to the other actor and then you react. In film, sometimes the other actor isn't even there. You have to play the scene. What I do is I call on my experience on the stage. I play the scene and I hope that I reach a certain level of integrity because that's what I learned on the stage.

I love the theater. I love the rehearsals. That's where you build a performance. That's your foundation. If you're gonna build a house, you start with the foundation. That makes the house strong. That's the way I build a character, from the foundation out.

I was happy because I was acting. Most of the time for nothing. But I was learning and to learn that you can learn opens up the world for you.

There was no sacrifice in acting for me, even when I was starving in New York. I went three days without eating. Charlie Bronson and I sold blood for $5 so that we could eat.

I'm 83 and a half years old and I feel fine. I feel like a teenager but I'm unable to do a lot of the things that I used to do but I enjoy life to the fullest.

I know know why ... if something not broke, don't fix it. Twelve Angry Men was the perfect movie. The cast was just the best cast you could possibly get together. The director was Sidney Lumet, the best director around. So why they made the remake I don't know.