The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

I do not choose to be a common man…it is my right to be uncommon—if I can…I seek opportunity—not security…I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed… to refuse to barter incentive for a dole… I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopias….

The good parts are the people who don't make do. They're the interesting people. Lear doesn't make do.

What I like is bottomless flattery.

When I work with young people, I grab energy from them by the handsful.

Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*.

One time in the late '50s, when Peter Finch, Laurence Harvey, and I were all offered the same movie role - the assumption being that we weren't friends - we marched up to producer Dino De Laurentiis's door and declared in unison, 'We don't think we're suitable for the part.'