I live in a kind of controlled awareness. I wouldn't call it fear, but it's an awareness. I know I have a responsibility to behave in a certain way. I'm able to do that.
My first fear was about the devil, when I was around fire, something I saw in a movie. I think it's about pain, in whichever form it comes.
What's my greatest fear? I don't know; I have lots of fears. Regret, I don't want to have any regrets; that makes me scared.
When I left drama school, my fear was that I'd get pigeon holed into comic acting and I did so much to counter it that I got stuck in the opposite.
You know, sometimes I feel well and vital in the world, and sometimes I just feel so distressed I want to pull my hair out by the roots.
I had no fear 'cause it seemed everyone in the audience always applauded whatever I did. Course, maybe it was because I always seemed to know everyone in the audience.
I think anybody who's famous has to deal with their fame in their own way, and I dealt with it by making a film about a kid who's looking out into the world of celebrity obsession.
The most famous rumor for me is that I had throat cancer. I never had throat cancer... I don't know why that started... The way I sing, probably.
When you're famous, you don't get to meet people because they want you to like them when the present themselves to you, and you don't see the real people.
The first syndicating I tried was when two partners and I created a production company in 1952. We wanted to syndicate famous Bible stories and sell them for $25 a show.
When you're doing characters from famous novels, you have a responsibility as an actor to make it what the writer intended. And then you add and expand from there to create a three-dimensional performance.
I certainly don't want a child of mine to be famous, or anyone I was very close to who isn't yet... It's the worst thing to be trapped in your house not be able to leave.
I grew up with Forrest J. Ackerman's 'Famous Monsters of Filmland' along with a plethora of movie tomes and wanted to write about film with a sense of personality, passion, and humor.
Of course there have been times I regretted being the kid in 'E.T.' My world went completely crazy. I was that stupid kind of famous, where you can't go anywhere.
Many people don't know our famous 'soup kitchen' episode on Seinfeld was inspired by an actual soup restaurant off 8th Avenue in New York.
I don't put weight on fame, and having people around me just because I am famous makes me feel really bad about myself.
I'm willing to make compromises based on someone I think is the one, but I think it's psychologically important to people when they're famous to be the only famous person they know.
The first pork-barrel bill that crosses my desk, I'm going to veto it and make the authors of those pork-barrel items famous all over America.
Some very famous directors have started in the mail room, which is just getting inside the studio, getting to know people, getting to know the routine.
I was suddenly really famous, and I didn't know how to cope. I didn't know myself well enough as a person, number one, and as an actor, number two. I wanted to escape.
I didn't think I was a famous singer. I didn't think I was a star or that I could make the waters part - just that singing was what I was going to do.
