My middle name really is perseverance. I've always believed that I had talent, even when I felt like a very inferior sort of person, which I spent a lot of time living my life feeling that I wasn't worthy. But even then I knew that I had something special, and maybe that's what it takes. Maybe people need to have that kind of particular core driving them. But I felt I had talent.

As you get older one tends to develop what I call a wobble. I would rather eat glass than let that happen to my voice.

Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life.

C'mon, we're actors. We love the attention. We love the applause. We sure don't like to be rejected.

I'm 81 and I'm in the prime of my life.

Los Angles is not my favorite city. Well, I shouldn't say that... I love to visit it, on a temporary basis. It's just such a company town! You can't go anywhere and not run into someone who wants to be in the business.

You don't die if someone doesn't like you.