I bought the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I paid to have it made into a play and I played in it for six months. I came back and I tried to make it into a movie, without success.

I have a great respect for actors like Clint Eastwood, who's a wonderful director. I think two pictures that I directed were not successful, so I decided not to make any more.

When I produced Spartacus, the writer was Dalton Trumbo, who spent a year in jail because he would not answer McCarthy's questions about other people. He submitted the picture under the false name of Sam Jackson.

Listen - pacemaker, crash, stroke. What does it mean? God doesn't want me now. That's all.

The best wine comes from home, wherever it is.

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

The first time I had got an offer to come to Hollywood, I turned it down. I said, "No, I'm an actor of the stage.