QUOTES

I guess I'm pretty much of a lone wolf. I don't say I don't like people at all but, to tell you the truth, I only like it then if I have a chance to look deep into their hearts and their minds.

[to director Edward D. Wood Jr., on the set of one of his legendary turkeys] This is the most uncomfortable coffin I've ever been in.

Circumstances made me the theatrical personality I am, which many people believe is also a part of my personal life.

Every producer in Hollywood had set me down as a type. I was both amused and disappointed.

I'd like to quit the supernatural roles and play just an interesting, down-to-earth person.

I'll be truthful. The weekly paycheck is the most important thing to me.

[on being typecast in villain roles] I find that, because of my language and gestures, that I am cataloged as what you call a heavy. My accent stamped me, in the imagination of the producers, as an enemy. Therefore, I must be a heavy. In Hungary, acting is a career for which one fits himself as earnestly and studiously as one studies for a degree in medicine, law or philosophy. In Hungary, acting is a profession.

Every actor's greatest ambition is to create his own, definite and original role, a character with which he will always be identified. In my case, that role was Dracula.

Never has a role so influenced and dominated an actor's role as has the role of Dracula. He [Dracula] has, at times, infused me with prosperity and, at other times, he has drained me of everything.

[on playing Dracula] It's a living, but it's also a curse. It's Dracula's curse.

If I had one per cent of the millions Dracula (1931) has made, I wouldn't be sitting here now.

[in response to an interviewer question "Doesn't Dracula ever end for you?"] No. No. Dracula never ends. I don't know if I should call it a fortune or a curse, but Dracula ever ends.