When I was 6 my father went to fight in the war, so he was my big hero. I thought he was the greatest thing.

My own mentality is that I've retired. They send me these scripts and if I absolutely have to do it, then I go to work.

I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.

I spent my entire time reading books and going to the cinema, just to escape.

I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.

The basic rule of human nature is that powerful people speak slowly and subservient people quickly - because if they don't speak fast enough, nobody will listen to them.

My problem was that I was blond. There were no heroes with blond hair. Robert Taylor and Henry Fonda, they all had dark hair. The only one I found was Van Johnson, who wasn't too cool. He was a nice, homely American boy. So I created my own image. It worked.