Quotes

[interview in Toronto Globe and Mail, 11/12/1982] I would speak to Vanessa's [Vanessa Redgrave] father [Sir Michael Redgrave], or Laurence Olivier or John Gielgud, and they told me that, at a certain point, I had to make a choice. I could be a star and maybe make lots of money, or I could change roles all the time and have a more interesting--and longer--career. People will criticize you, they said, but if you keep changing, you'll win in the end.

[quoted on 11/27/1978] I was working as a set photographer on [Dino De Laurentiis'] The Bible in the Beginning... (1966). Director John Huston had seen a photo of me and said, "That's the face I want".

[to L.A. Times columnist Roderick Mann] If you're a big Hollywood star, you make one movie a year at the most. I can make five in Europe.

[on his two-month stint at acting school] They wanted to *teach* me to act. But to act is natural. It is ten percent acting and ninety percent being smart.

I am the busiest actor. Why? Because an actor either decides he wants to be a star and play the same role over and over, or be an actor and change all the time.

[to Tomas Milian after being asked why he was wearing heavy make-up for Compañeros (1970)] You know why? Because when I am very old, when I am fifty, the audience will always see me in the same way. I will look like I never aged because I'm going to be an actor forever.

[on the cultural impact of Django (1966)] I had no idea it would turn out to be so special. It wasn't just a success; it was a phenomenon. Everywhere I go people shout "Django" at me. Even today, as I am working in Brazil, kids call me Django. In Japan, they won't even put my name on movie posters, they put "Django". In Germany, they call all my movies "Django"; I did a great movie about the Sicilian mafia [Mafia (1968)] and they called it "Django in the Mafia". [The Shark Hunter (1979)] they called "Django Django". They say: "Well, it's your problem."