I'd done some acting in high school. Then I went to Kenyon College and got thrown in jail and kicked off the football team. Since I was determined not to study very much, I majored in theater the last two years. Got my degree in speech; they didn't actually have a degree in theater. I graduated at two o'clock in the afternoon, and at three-thirty I was on the train for Williams Bay, Wisconsin, for summer stock, and then I did winter stock.

I believe there can be dignity in the acting profession. And I think there ought to be more dignity in the publicity an actor gets.

When the idea came up, (Newman's Own) I said, "Are you crazy? Stick my face on the label of salad dressing?" And then, of course, we got the whole idea of exploitation and how circular it is. Why not, really, go to the fullest length, and the silliest length, in exploiting yourself and turn the proceeds back to the community?

I want to acknowledge luck, the benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others.

Natural law. Sons are put on this earth to trouble their fathers.

The best thing you can give yourselves...is the gift of possibility. And the best thing you can give each other is the pledge to go on protecting that gift in each other as long as you live.

Admit it. I'm the best you ever seen, Fats. I'm the best there is. And even if you beat me, I'm still the best.