“A good boy, and I’m very proud of him. Not easy to understand, no sir. He’s not easy to understand. But he’s all man, and he’ll make his mark.”

I have sacrificed a physical bond, for a metaphysical relationship. I am the ultimate idealistic lover.

I firmly believe Rebel Without A Cause is such a picture.

A fish that is in the water has no choice that he is. Genius would have it that we swim in sand. We are fish and we drown.

Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that. So the director’s task is just that – to direct, to point the way. Then the actor takes over.

Being a good actor isn’t easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I’m done.

Only the gentle are ever really strong.

An actual right is something that governments need merely to secure, not to implement.

You are who you are meant to be, Dance as if no one’s watching, Love as if it’s all you know, Dream as if you’ll live forever, Live as if you’ll die today

And he must be allowed the space, the freedom to express himself in the role. Without that space, an actor is no more than an unthinking robot with a chest-full of push-buttons.

An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer.

When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn’t acting. It’s following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.

You’re tearing me apart!

Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have.

What do we need all that for?”If a picture is psychologically motivated, if there is truth in the relationship in it, then I think that picture will do good.

Nowadays, he lives in a world we don’t understand too well, the actor’s world. We don’t see too much of him. But he’s a good boy, my Jim.

Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have.