"I don't want to be a star. If you have to label me anything, I'm an actor - I guess. A journeyman actor. I think 'star' is what you call actors who can't act." "A writer can write in an attic, or on top of a bus. Or with a sharp stick in some wet cement. To act, an actor has to have words. A stage. a camera turning. I can't go into the middle of Times Square, stop traffic and start acting." "I won't go up in a plane, but if a play crashes, I'll jump into the next one that comes along and take it up for a spin." "I've never tried to learn the art of acting. I have been in the business for years but I still can't tell what acting is or how it's done." [To Irving Thalberg, on the MGM central producer's desire to cast him in "The Good Earth" (1937)] "I'm about as Chinese as Herbert Hoover." [on Robert Donat's performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips] "The most magnificent performance I've ever seen on any screen. Not a false motion - not a wasted gesture. He is the greatest actor we have today."