“I have played Dracula a thousand times on stage and I find I have become thoroughly settled in the technique of the stage and not of the screen.”

A screen actor is compensated in the knowledge that millions will see his performance at one time, where only hundreds will see it on the stage.

Every producer in Hollywood had set me down as a type. I was both amused and disappointed.

The actor depends wholly on himself. He gives his performance in what, to him, seems the most effective manner.

In making theories, always keep a window open so that you can throw one out if necessary.

It is women who love horror. Gloat over it. Feed on it. Are nourished by it. Shudder and cling and cry out-and come back for more.

It took several years of hard work in small roles before I attained stardom.

I studied at the Budapest Academy of Theatrical Arts for four years and emerged with a degree.

It was hell to go through what I went through. I didn’t know I had so many friends. Many people gave a damn about my situation. They helped cure me.

I look in the mirror and say to myself, Can it be you once played Romeo?

I’ll take any story if it’s good.

The role seemed to demand that I keep myself worked up to fever pitch, so I took on the actual attributes of the horrible vampire, Dracula.

I will not be tortured! I tear torture out of myself by torturing you!

I never drink… wine.

To win a woman, take her with you to see Dracula.

There was no male vampire type in existence. Someone suggested an actor of the Continental School who could play any type, and mentioned me.

Of all the roles I’ve done on the stage, I’m partial to Cyrano de Bergerac.

Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations.

I still love to walk on stage and make people laugh, and I work very, very hard at it, and I take it seriously.

Anything I write that I consider stage-quality work, I won’t give my TV show. I put it in my live show.

The difference might be that in a film you have a close up. On stage you don’t.

I always found that the closer I got to who I really am, on stage, the more they responded to it.

My uncle was a preacher, and I used to go watch him preach. He was also funny, so I’m very ‘preacher-ish’ on stage, not by intent but because that’s where I learned to talk in front of people.

You can tell on-stage when a joke’s starting to lose its pop. It doesn’t mean people don’t want to hear it anymore; it means I don’t want to do it anymore. Because I want to move on to something that has a knee-jerk reaction just like you get when you tell somebody a joke that they’ve never heard.

You can teach somebody how to be a brain surgeon, but you cannot teach them how to walk on a stage and make people laugh.