“It is a matter of artistic instinct. In his own thoughts and feelings and way of doing things an actor is worth nothing or he is worth something. If he is worth something then he will try to be worth something more as is only normal in anyone who wants to get on. I can think of no other way to explain artistic development.”

“Inspiration comes unawares, from unaccountable sources that have nothing to do with planning or intelligence. Let it cool ever so slightly, and you are left, pen or brush in hand, with no inspiration at all. Gifted people need not, therefore, make a song and dance about being or supposing themselves superior. They simply happened to be born with that fortunate, subconscious equipment of theirs, and the mystery exists independently of intelligence or ambition.”

“An artist carries on throughout his life a mysterious, uninterrupted conversation with his public.”

“The French are true romantics. They feel the only difference between a man of forty and one of seventy is thirty years of experience.”

“It is always the same: women bedeck themselves with jewels and furs, and men with wit and quotations.”

“Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.”

“You don't stop laughing because you grow older. You grow older because you stop laughing.”

“A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth. Instead of its bringing sad and melancholy prospects of decay, it would give us hopes of eternal youth in a better world.”

“The crime of loving is forgetting.”

“Many a man has fallen in love with a girl in a light so dim he would not have chosen a suit by it.”

“If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed races won or lasting happiness achieved.”