- The greatest drawback in making pictures is the fact that film makers have to eat.
- [on Louella Parsons] She never forgot a thing and, by the same token, never forgave anyone who crossed her. But she was never vicious.
- [on Hedda Hopper] She was venomous, vicious, a pathological liar, and quite stupid.
- The Celtic mind in its lonely moments is a tumbling sea of love and compassion and romanticism and neurotic hates.
- [when asked why he had appeared in so many bad films late in his career] For the money, old chap, for the money!
- Ronald Reagan and George Murphy are very, very good men. They're really patriots. The word is overdone, but in their case it really applies.
- Now the stars walk around in supermarkets dressed in blue jeans. It's depressing. I really think the fault lies with that "Method" school of acting in New York. They want to be real natural, you know, real folk. Well, God, every street corner you go around has real folks. Yo don't look for that in world stars. The entertainment business is a fantasy world. I don't think any female star should be seen doing the laundry. Hollywood was built on glamour, and they'd better get it back as soon as they can.
- I keep playing neurotics because I'm a Welshman, and so I'm supposed to be moody. That's what people keep telling me I am, anyway. But I don't think Welshmen are any more moody than normal. It's the rest of the world that's out of step.
- I go to the cinema to be entertained, not depressed.
- My only desire politically is to shoot a few of the politicians. I'm not saying who. But I'm not tempted to become one myself, I couldn't stand dragging my family through all that muck.
- [on how he came to attend the 1946 Oscar ceremonies] On the day it dawned, I knew I couldn't face it and made up my mind not to attend. At breakfast, I hesitantly told Mal [his wife] of my decision. She slowly put down her fork and just examined me. I didn't know where to look. Then she said, "I know that you're erratic, volatile, and the possessor of a foul temper. But I never thought you were a coward!". Then with a look as cold as a Canadian nun, she said, "You'll go the that ceremony tonight if we have to put you in a straitjacket.".
- [After doing Arise, My Love (1940)] I called up my wife long distance and said, "Mal honey, when this picture comes out I'm finished. Sell everything we've got and we'll try to start a new life somewhere else." Then it came out and was an enormous hit which really boosted my career - that shows you how much I knew in those days.
- [on Paulette Goddard] She is the most honest actress I ever knew.
- [on Ronald Reagan] I attended a meeting of the full membership of the Screen Actors Guild held in the Hollywood Legion Stadium, and up in the ring presiding over it was the best president the Guild ever had, Ronald Reagan, now Governor of California. He had a tough job directing the traffic that night, what with calls to the barricades by a lot of coffeehouse characters, wailing about the violence outside studio gates. Hell, the only violent activity I ever saw outside a studio gate was over at Republic one morning when Vera Ralston lost her skate key.
- My philosophy is do what you can with what you've got. I know actors from my generation who cry "Why don't they send me any scripts?". I tell them, "Because you still think of yourself as a leading man. You're 68, not 38. Face it.".
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