I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

Crooks aren't the worst people, just the stupidest. The fleas of the world.

I'm one of those fellows so frightened of driving that I go 80 miles an hour - and the more frightened I get, the faster I go.

I prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out

A maverick may go his own way but he doesn't think that it's the only way or ever claim that it's the best one, except maybe for himself. And don't imagine that this raggle-taggle gypsy is claiming to be free. It's just that some of the necessities to which I am a slave are different from yours.

Anybody who speaks quietly and shrivels up in company is unbelievably arrogant.

I'm not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I'm no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom. I mark only the happy hours, like the sundial, because otherwise I would have gone nuts.