The Oscar made me a star, and I’m grateful. But I feel had I not won the Oscar I wouldn’t have gotten into the messes I did in my personal life.

I don’t care whether a role is 10 minutes long or two hours. And I don’t care whether my name is up there on top, either. Matter of fact, I’d rather have someone else get top billing; then if the picture bombs, he gets the blame, not me.

Writers used to make such wonderful pictures without all that swearing, all that cursing. And now it seems that you can’t say three words without cursing. And I don’t think that’s right.

The trick is not to become somebody else. You become somebody else when you’re in front of a camera or when you’re on stage. There are some people who carry it all the time. That, to me, is not acting.

I’m what you call a Depression sailor.

I wouldn’t trade those 10 years for anything. The Navy taught me a lot of things. It molded me as a man, and I made a lot of wonderful friends.

Fathers and mothers are just people, which means they make mistakes. Don’t hold that against them. Whatever flaws they may have, they created you in a moment of love, and are among the few who knew you when. When they’re gone, there won’t be anyone to take their place.

It’s not your word that matters, it’s who you give it too.

I got a job immediately after leaving high school; I was lucky – three dollars a week and all I could eat, working on a vegetable truck.

It was my mom who told me, “Ernie, if you make even one person happy with your smile or a funny thing you did every day, you’ll have accomplished a great deal.” And that’s all I’ve ever tried to do.