Quotes

I don't think I would be an actor if I was all that intelligent.

When I was in high school I wanted to be a leading man guy, like Howard Keel. But then God saw fit to take the hair off my head at age 24.

I went through that adolescent crisis where you either jump into the river or jump into spirituality. I felt the call for a while; then I felt the normal pull of the world and the flesh. - PB, referring to his early life as a monk

[from a 1973 Rolling Stone article] Back in the fifties. I was an early fifties Jesus freak. I did it for about a year. I never spoke when I wasn't supposed to speak. I was an acolyte in the order of the Christian Brothers. Yeah, yeah, I know -- the Friends of the Winos. But I took it very seriously at the time. I pursued, you know, God, somewhat unsuccessfully for several years as a professional religious person, and then I forsook that life and took myself back to the world, and, through a series of incredibly stupid errors, became an actor. And after many hard, bitter years of struggle, I've achieved the immense fame I have now. Wealth. Happiness. Beautiful women throwing themselves at me. Believe me, it's not at all it's cracked up to be. Ahead of me, I can see only more stardom, with liberal does of obscurity.

[on working with Robert Mitchum on The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)] I really like Mitchum. The thing about him is that he's so fantastically hyperkinetic. I mean, questions of tolerance and energy and all that stuff -- he's just not quite human.