I've always been interested in science fiction.

I create each character as an individual, coming from a certain place, sounding a certain way, having been introduced to things a certain way.

A lot of the bad guys I've played just haven't had much dimension to them.

I'm usually cast by people who are oddly goofy.

The more complicated the character, the better I am. It's the one-dimensional crap that I had to do for years that drove me crazy.

Subliminally, I had always wanted to act. Although I had only performed in a couple of plays, I was serious about it and was subsequently trained by people like Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan.

I hung around with Jason Robards, Richard Harris, Robert Shaw, Richard Burton. I knew not to match them for drinks.

Actors need to trust themselves. If you trust yourself, you can trust others and leave the director outside.

I don't know anybody who's any good who isn't nuts.

I did theatrical caricatures.

I've got so many stories about every film and show I've ever been in.

Bad guys don't think they're bad guys. Hitler probably thought he was a wonderful guy doing some wonderful and righteous work for Germany.

The idea of death is something that doesn't make sense to a lot of people. But to bring something back - or vampires who never die - is a logical fantasy for a human being.

'North by Northwest' took two and a half to three months to film. When I look back, I realise I wasn't intimidated by Hitchcock and Cary Grant. They were so accepting of me.

I did a picture called 'Lovely, Still' with Ellen Burstyn, We screened it to the AARP people in Las Vegas, 2000 of them. We got a standing ovation from people who couldn't stand.

I did 12 shows in 13 weeks at a summer theater in Maine where we were paid $35 a week. After taxes and $25 for room and board, I had enough money for a pack of cigarettes and a bowl of lobster bisque.

You can have immediate regrets, but if you look at stuff and say, 'Things happen for a reason', there's a fatalistic thing about it. Something will happen that will justify it in some way.

Harry Dean Stanton, Anjelica Huston - a lot of people have studied with me. It's paying my dues.

All 'Hamlets' are different, and it's the most overwritten play ever written.

I've got two daughters, and it's impossible for me to say one of them is a favorite.

How a character hides his feelings tells us something about him.

My mantra is 'stay perpendicular.' Horizontal is not as good.

I started teaching when I was in my 20s because Lee Strasberg asked me to, and he didn't do that with a lot of people.

I could play a lot of things. And it's hard for people and logically hard and understandably hard for people to think of me for certain roles.