Anthony's quotes

"I can't stand to think that there's anybody, anywhere, who doesn't like me."

About working on set with Spencer Tracy in his first film, The Actress - "I remember saying 'Good morning Mr. Tracey' every morning until one day he said "Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning � now that should do you for a week!"

Regarding his fellow drama students in college - "Everybody said they were going to be actors and I said I was going to be an actor. They said they were going to be stars, and I said I was going to be a star; they said it and I said it; they knew it and I knew it - but I really knew it.

Recalling stepping into the acting shoes of his father (1953) - "My father was supposed to be famous for the way in which he used his hands for dramatic expression. Whenever I do a reading of a play or a bit-part for some of his old friends, they wait to see what I'll do with my hands. They stare at me then say, "Osgood wouldn't have done that!" or, "That's just the way he would make that gesture!". I'm just plain scared to death.

Addressing the impact Psycho had on audiences - "I couldn't believe that all the other films I had done previously had been forgotten, and that I was being narrowed down into this one image that other people had of me."

"I'm a wreck... when I'm tired, I stutter and my eyes cross. Even on the night Look Homeward, Angel opened on Broadway I couldn't wait up for all the reviews!"

Interviewed for "Photoplay", Sept 1957 - "Being a star is just plain awful".

During his appearance on gameshow Password, 1963 - "I'm dumb, but I'm romantic!"

While directing for Psycho III- "Once again, Norman is on top of the situation."

On his most famous character- "Norman Bates is the Hamlet of horror roles."

On Brigitte Bardot- "I'd rather jump out the window that into bed with Bardot!"

On first meeting his wife-to-be Berry Berenson- "I thought she was cute and pretty but a little frantic."

To himself in the mirror, while psyching himself up to go on stage- "You're beautiful! You're a beautiful kid!"

On Joan Collins- "I'd rather have a cannibal for a co-star."

A bitchy comment about Steven Seagal-"Most actors have an inner meaning. He just has an inner vacuum."

On Alfred Hitchcock- "Psycho was a happy experience for all of us; Hitch made it such a pleasure."

Trying to pass the time with his fellow colleagues on the set of Catch-22- "Let's see how many synonyms of vagina we can get!"

Speaking of his feelings towards his father- "He became a mythic being to me, to be dreaded and appeased."

On following the same career path as his famous father Osgood- "Since he'd gone and died on me, I decided to pay him back by out-succeeding him."

Getting frustrated on the set of Crimes of Passion, as passing traffic was delaying shooting- "God DAMN it! Fucking cars! Forget it! I want to shoot the fucking thing now! I'm into it, lets do it!!"

A statement he made shortly before his death- "I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life."

Speaking about why he chose to keep his disease private- "I chose not to go public about this because, to misquote 'Casablanca,' I'm not much at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one old actor don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

Part of his last letter, given to his sons after his death- "Boys, don't try to find a woman as wonderful as your mother to marry because if you do, you'll stay single your whole lives."

Some poignant thoughts on life and death, 1983- "It's satisfying to have grown from where I was to where I am. But there is so much growing still to be done. As long as I live, I'll be cleaning the past out of my mind, getting rid of those old cassettes I play over and over -- my memories, my beliefs. I want to keep up with my life. Live it so completely that when death comes like a thief in the night, there'll be nothing left for him to steal."

He once told an interviewer who suggested that a boy's best friend is his mother- "She's not only his best friend, she's his most ardent lover."

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