I'd never seen anyone work like Al. If there was a scene where his character was getting into a car, he'd talk through the scene of what he must have been doing before he got into the car. He was the most prepared actor I've ever met.

The movie deals with the relationship between a master and his prodigy. What better way to capture that than with the real thing in Hollywood?

A big chest, a big mouth, 90 percent memory, 10 percent intelligence, lots of hard work, and something in the heart.

Never permit circumstances to change your plans, but give so much character to your plans that they will change circumstances. Give so much character to the current of your work that all things will be drawn into that current, and that which at first was but a tiny rivulet, will thus be swelled into a mighty, majestic stream.

I'd love to play the piano, and I'm going to work on it.

If you're not in
the mood, you can't do that stuff right.