Quotes

(On his 61 year career in film making) "I've had a good life, let's face it. I have been one of the very lucky ones, met the right people at the right time, and I've worked in India, Barbados, Cairo, and all over Europe. I've been very lucky."

(Regarding poor weather during filming of "Where Eagles Dare") "All the equipment had to be tied to the trees to stop it from sliding away. I got pleurisy, and others got frostbite and pneumonia. It wasn't all fun."

(On helping director Stanley Kubrick to get relaxed) "Sometimes Stanley couldn't get himself mentally into it (the film work). He would clear the stage and just keep the sound crew, camera crews, and a few others there... and we'd tell jokes. That was the way he (Stanley) relaxed. Then Kubrick would suddenly get to grips with what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it."

(In the early years of film with sound)"There was a period where only about eight to ten people in the whole of England who knew anything about sound, including myself. We had to learn as we went along. Some technicians came over from the (United) States to teach us, and we worked our way up."

(In his army days, when he was assigned to Pinewood Studios to make training films for recruits)"I was the lucky one because I was kept back (from being sent to battlefields in Europe and North Africa). We made short films of different things, such as teaching soldiers how to cook cabbage properly. We'd make them on anything that would help."