Though I soon became typecast in Hollywood as a gangster and hoodlum, I was originally a dancer, an Irish hoofer, trained in vaudeville tap dance. I always leapt at the opportunity to dance in films later on.

Learn your lines… plant your feet… look the other actor in the eye… say the words… mean them.

Outside of my family, the prime concern of my life has been nature and its order, and how we have been savagely altering that order.

I`m sick of carrying guns and beating up women.

My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those misfortunes. I have an idea that the Irish possess a built-in don't-give-a-damn that helps them through all the stress.

I got a part as a chorus girl in a show called Every Sailor and I had fun doing it. Mother didn't really approve of it, through.

Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.