I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up.

I never had any desire to be a film actor. I never thought I was the good-looking movie type, which I assumed they wanted.

Life is like a B-picture script! It is that corny. If I had my life story offered to me to film, I'd turn it down.

Streets crowded with people strolling, or sitting at outdoor cafes. And always, talking, gesturing, singing, laughing. I liked Rome immediately.Everybody was a performer.

The learning process continues until the day you die.

When I made Spartacus during the McCarthy Era, we were losing our freedom. It was an awful, awful way. McCarthy saw Communists everywhere, in every level of government and they concentrated on Hollywood and especially on Hollywood writers.

I was living in a terrible time when people were being accused of being communists, and they attacked the movie industry, especially the writers. People couldn't work if they were on the blacklist. The studios banned them. It was the most onerous period in movie history. I don't think we have ever had a period so dark as that.