Quotes

Keep interested in others; keep interested in the wide and wonderful world. Then in a spiritual sense, you will always be young.

I liked the name Frederick Bickel and I wish now I had left it as it was. After all, Theodore Bikel, whose name was similar though spelled differently, didn't change his, and he did all right.

Co-starring with Greta Garbo hardly constituted an introduction.

[commenting on the fact that he and Wallace Beery, who both won Best Actor Oscars for 1931-32 due to a tie, had recently adopted children] It seems a little odd that we were both given awards for the best male performance of the year.

Stardom is just an uneasy seat on top of a tricky toboggan. Being a star is merely perching at the head of the downgrade. A competent featured player can last a lifetime. A star, a year or two. There's all that agony of finding suitable stories, keeping in character, maintaining illusion. Then the undignified position of hanging on while your popularity is declining.

I have earnestly endeavored to perform my own share without fuss or temperament. An actor has no more right to be temperamental than a bank clerk. Possibly, a very sane bringing up as a child has helped me to retain my sense of proportion in these matters.

[on Joan Crawford] She was a nice person, but a real movie star. She even brought her own music to the set [of Susan and God (1940)]--a whole entourage, a violinist and a pianist to play her favorite songs, to get her into the proper mood for the scenes.

Actually, I was not overwhelmed by Greta Garbo's beauty. I think at that time women were more attracted to her than men.

[on receiving a kiss from Audrey Hepburn after her Oscar win in 1954] I'll take a dozen of those.

[asked how he prepared for a role] I think it's almost physically impossible to give a well-rounded performance without knowing it beforehand. To try and rehearse eight hours a day and then go home at night and knock more lines into your head--it just doesn't work. You know it first, then try to polish as you go along.