James Coburn

“It was the desire to do the complete thing.  I only took taking acting lessons because my whole thing, really, was to direct.  But my first jobs were acting jobs.”

“Studios have been trying to get rid of the actor for a long time and now they can do it.  They got animation.  NO more actor, although for now they still have to borrow a voice or two.  Anyway, I find it abhorrent.”

“Taking in and blowing out smoke?  And now you see girls smoking cigars.  It got to be such a fad.  Girls on the covers of magazines, smoking cigars.  Give me a break.  I didn’t want to be a part of that.  I don’t like ‘popular.’”

“The Magnificent Seven was really kind of a miraculous event that took place in my life.”

“First job I went out on in new York I got, and when I came back, the first job I went out on, I got.”