I pray and try every day to be a better actor.

In the beginning I had a real work problem. Every time I had job I had to convince the immigration authorities I was the only man for that job and get a special work permit until I went under contract to MGM.

Anyway, when I was a kid, I dutifully went to the Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College.

I pray and try every day to be a better actor.

I did well as an actor in Australia, and then Paramount invited me over... to have a look at me.

Acting is something I love.

When I said I no longer wanted to be a painter, that I wanted to be an actor, the first thing I did was get a stinking job in an insurance building.

I wouldn't dream of selling my work. I give them to friends, to charities.

When people think it's successful, I'm grateful. When they don't - OK, I'll try again.

I'd much rather turn down a starring role in a bad picture and do a small role in a very good picture.

To put what you see on paper is the same as funneling what you feel through yourself as a performer.

I married at a tender age during my early stage and radio struggles.

The fact that I'm going to be unsuccessful at times is pretty well-balanced by the fact that I'm going to be successful at others.

I was one of the first of the uglies. Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter... were very pretty fellows, and that was the trend. I was one of the first of the uglies to get lucky.

Apart from being interested in a good role, I think it's necessary to make up your mind as to whether it will make a movie that will entertain an audience all over the world and not just in your own backyard.

Art doesn't feed me or fill the void when I am not working. If I haven't worked for six months, I can't paint.

So I went and did an audition and became the biggest radio actor in Sydney, and that's how it all started.

I'm not doing my work for constant success.

Dore Schary was then head of the studio and he wanted to change my name.

To a large degree, those early lean days were self-imposed.

I am proud to be an actor.

Acting doesn't suffice.

I worked at Mark Foy's during the day and studied drama at night.

The most important thing in my life is my work.

But I did a lot of boxing and I was captain of an Australian surf club.

I am a poor student sitting at the feet of giants, yearning for their wisdom and begging for lessons that might one day make me a complete artist, so that if all goes well, I may one day sit beside them.

I suddenly realized how much I loved her when we attended Alfred Hitchcock's 75th birthday party last August. There was something magical about that night, and it made me see how much she really meant to me.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

I've been a very lucky actor.

I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.

When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.

Most parts that can be played by one actor can equally well be played by another, but not this.

I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy. That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I said I wanted to work with quality actors and directors.

There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won't bring to me because they don't think I'll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.

Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.

I still feel like I'm trying to make it. It's hard to shed the struggling actor thing.

Only a great actor finds the difficulties of the actor's art infinite.

Follow the wisdom of the great actor, James Cagney, you hit your mark, you look the other guy in the eye, and you tell the truth.