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 always loved to gamble. I never got close to a horse. Fate dealt me a terrible blow when it gave me a good horse the first time out. I thought how easy this is. Now I love being around them.

For 50 years, acting was the reason I got up in the morning.

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 saw John Garfield smoke. He was my idol, so I smoked. I even smoked like him.

Now I have the voice of a 16-year-old. I'm looking for a doctor who could give me the body of a 16-year-old.

I was at the pinnacle of my career one day and the next day I was put out to pasture. I felt like a race horse with a broken leg.