I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.

The world was like a huge red carpet out ahead of me to be walked on. And it stretched on and on, no end.

What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.

The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.

Look for the contradictions in every character, especially in your heroes and villains. No one should be what they first seem to be. Surprise the audience.

Take it from a director: if you get an actor that Sandy Meisner has trained, you've been blessed.

Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.

I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.

You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.

Wonder is our need today, not information.

The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.

People quickly forget evil because they still haven't created a language to describe it so the world refuses to carry the burden, preferring to forget.

This principle eludes most people, but it is critical: You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.

Young people believe that regret is something you will never feel if you simply do as you please, but sometimes it is a matter of degree.

The spirit of logical analysis should in practice blend with the practical pressure for the adoption of some form of international language, but it should not allow itself to be stampeded by it.

I came from a family that sometimes didn't have insurance.

The human child – so much cannier at times than the stupefyingly ponderous adult.

A good marriage is at least 80% good luck in finding the right person at the right time. The rest is trust.

Everything bad that has ever happened to me has been caused by agents or lawyers.

Fool, nothing is impossible in Russia but reform.

Law is order in liberty, and without order liberty is social chaos.