Sterling Hayden

“When I was a kid and getting paid to stand in front of a camera. I used to spend a lot of my time just laughing inside about the whole thing. It wasn't real to me. I couldn't act and I damn well knew it. I kept expecting someone to see the joke and call the whole thing off at any moment. Fortunately, no one ever did.”

“It's a presumptuous thing to write one's autobiography, but this is really an effort in the deepest sense to explore the struggle of a tortured individual to be himself in a hostile society.”

“You can't just run away from everything.”

“When they saddle the leading man with violence it makes the characters look weak. If a man is a heroic type he doesn't have to resort to violence. How many successful men in the world have to settle problems with their fists?”

“I am an expert in loneliness and have wandered around a great deal.”

“Normality is boring.”

“If you stop to think, the only films that don't include at least one punch in -the jaw are musical comedies. And even then some of those villains get brained in the middle of an aria.”

“All I need is a place to put my things, somewhere to lay a mattress.”

“I always hated acting but I kept on acting.”