"I was a shy, awkward sort of a boy and my father's frequent absences from home, along with my hero worship for him, made me even shyer."

"In my day, the only people who achieved real independence were my father, Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin, who, with D. W. Griffith, formed United Artists. Other than that, everybody belonged to the big studios. They had no say in their own careers."

"I had no particular desire to be a personality like my father, nor was I equipped to be one. I was determined to be my own man, although having the Fairbanks name did make it easier to get into an office to see someone."

"What has always been at the heart of film making was the value of a script. It was really the writer who could make or break a film. But as we all know, the writer has always been at the bottom of the creative heap."

"He had written my mother once that he wanted her to be the first thing he saw every morning and the last thing he ever saw. And that's how it turned out."

"My mother always taught me, even my dad, just never let other people's opinions of you shape your opinion of yourself. And I never have and I never will."

"Mother Nature may be forgiving this year, or next year, but eventually she's going to come around and whack you. You've got to be prepared."

"My parents always made education and school the number one priority. They believed that an education is the best gift you can give to your child."