I have a lot to be sad about. Not bitter in any way. But I think it can be fairly said that I've been in on the beginning, the rise, peak, collapse and end of the talking picture.

I am never quite sure whether I am one of the cinema's elder statesmen or just the oldest whore on the beat.

I got a job at Metro and went in to see Louis Mayer, who told me he wanted me to be a producer. I said I wanted to write and direct. He said, 'No, you have to …

Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.

'I set out as a steeplejack in my youth to preserve chimneys. I've finished by knocking most of them down.'

I was appalled that the San Francisco ethic didn't mushroom and envelope the whole world into this loving community of acid freaks. I was very naive.

It is surprising the way things have changed since I first became chancellor of a university 50 years ago. (2003)