the boys had learned that laughter stilled anxiety. It cleared away mystery. If you could laugh at something, it erased its importance.

There are five stages in the life of an actor: Who's Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who's Mary Astor?

to move the wheels of justice is a ponderous business.

A person without a memory is either a child or an amnesiac. A country without a memory is neither a child nor an amnesiac, but neither is it a country.

The reminder that there are people who have worse troubles than you is not an effective pain-killer.

Audiences will get just as tired of people wrestling on a bed as they did of Tom Mix kissing his horse.

It's not good to make sentimental journeys. You see the differences instead of the sameness.