"A director must be pretty bad if he can't get a thrill out of war, murder, robbery." [On Boris Karloff] "His face fascinated me. I made drawings of his head, adding sharp bony ridges where I imagined the skull might have joined." [To Paul Robeson, upon hearing and seeing the "Ol' Man River" sequence in Whale's 1936 film "Show Boat"] "The spine-chilling effect of that one song was something I shall never forget."