We were like a stock company at Warners. We didn't know any of the stars from the other studios.

I wouldn't wish overnight success on anyone. You have no real friends. Everyone works endless hours at different studios, so far apart. Even on your own lot, relationships were formal and often competitive.

I loved France, although I initially thought they were stubborn for always speaking French.

I don't need a fantasy life as once I did. That is the life of the imagination that I had a great need for. Films were the perfect means for satisfying that need.

What bothered me was playing one-dimensional parts in films which were really about, 'Boy Meets Girl,' 'Will Boy Get Girl?'

I feel like a survivor from an age that people no longer understand. I want to try to explain what the 1930s - the golden age of Hollywood - was truly like. People forget that America was such a different place then, not yet the dominant force in the world.