Quotes

Someone called actors "sculptors in snow". Very apt. In the end, it's all nothing.

I don't play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge.

"Gothic" is just a word recalling a multitude of sins!

[Tim Burton's Vincent (1982)] was immortality--better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard.

A man who limits his interests limits his life.

A lot of the recent actresses look and act like my niece. Now, she's a good girl, but I wouldn't pay to see her.

I sometimes feel that I'm impersonating the dark unconscious of the whole human race. I know this sounds sick, but I love it.

Doing a religious picture is a boring thing because everybody is on their best behavior--hoping for the keys to the kingdom, I guess.

What's important about an actor is his acting, not his life.

I hate being old and ill! Don't get old if you can avoid it!

The wonderful thing about Hawaii is, there, it doesn't take any words at all to say "I love you". You can say it with a pineapple and a twenty.

The horror thriller offers the serious actor unique opportunities to test his ability to make the unbelievable believable.

Suddenly in the '50s, a whole new group of actors came out: Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman, who were very moody and realistic. So actors like myself and Basil Rathbone and so on didn't really fit into those realistic dramas and we began to do costume pictures. This was really the only place we could go on working if we wanted to survive as actors. Most of the things of my later career have been costume pictures. They require a certain knowledge of the language, they require enunciation and a poetic approach to the language. Really, the one thing we have over the apes is our language, isn't it? That's about all.

[on House of Wax (1953) and director André De Toth] It's almost my favorite Hollywood story. Where else in the world would you hire a man with one eye to direct a picture in 3-D?

[on accepting the role of Baka in The Ten Commandments (1956)] You aren't a movie actor until you've been in a [Cecil B. DeMille] film.

[on Gene Tierney] Gene was the most underrated actress that we ever had! I've known her since she was about 17; and I adored her! She really wasn't a great beauty or sex idol. When you look at Laura (1944), and people ask why it has lasted, I think it's because of Gene Tierney. There's no way she can look dated. Her hair looks modern, her clothes. She didn't have a great body, but had a body that wore clothes well.

Hollywood's worst fault is typecasting. John Wayne, Cary Grant, everyone who has been a success--we all had the same problem. And they tell me I'm too important to play small character roles; you can't win!

I played so many gentlemen at the beginning of my career that I certainly wanted to play some villains and so I got kind of stuck in villains.

I like to be seen, I love being busy and I believe in being active. I know some people think I've lowered myself as an actor, but my idea of "professional decline" is "not working".

The best parts in movies are the heavies. The hero is usually someone who has really nothing to do. He comes out on top, but it's the heavy who has all the fun.

Horror movies don't date because they were dated to begin with, they were mannered and consciously so--Gothic tales with an unreality. They have the fun of a fairy tale.

To me, films that deal with drug addiction, crime and war are the real horror films. In a world where slaughter and vicious crimes are daily occurrences, a good ghoulish movie is comic relief.

No one but Gene Tierney could have played Laura (1944). There was no other actress around with her particular combination of beauty, breeding and mystery.

I was thrilled to be on the Batman (1966) series. I really thought that it was one of the most brilliant television series ever done and I still think so. The imagination and the creativeness that went into these shows was extraordinary. They were ahead of their time.