Quotes

[1975] I'll never be mistaken for Pat Boone.

[Explaining why he believed he lost an important role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (which filmed in Jordan), after completing work on Exodus (1960)] I lost because I had appeared in a pro-Jewish picture, played a sympathetic Jewish boy, and shot four Arabs.

No one ever said movies are for developing your range. Hardly anyone gets that opportunity. Which is why I think the stage is so good. It's less bread, but you can play different types, and you can initiate your own projects.

[on James Dean] We never became lovers, but we could have -- like that.

[on his father's death] Being in the same room with him and looking at him, I realized that one day I would be in the same position as he, facing death. Before it happens I mean to do the things I want to do. I will not end up saying, "I wish I had".

It's a situation I've never been able to fathom. One minute, it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next -- no one wanted me.

If I'd understood back then that a guy could be in love with another one, it would have happened. But I didn't come to that realization for a few more years and then it was too late for Jimmy [James Dean] and me.

It would be easy to blame Hollywood to say that I was typed and forced to play the same role over and over. For a while, I did. But the truth is that I knew what I was doing. I was enjoying myself. I was making money. I suppose that it had to stop. I made some good pictures, and I made some bad ones. I wasn't trying to build an image, though; I was trying to build a life for myself.

[on Hollywood trying to box his sexuality in] I don't like to be told I can only love a woman - or a guy.