Anthony Perkins Quotes

I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life.

(statement made shortly before his death, on why he was private about his battle with AIDS) I chose not to go public about this because, to misquote Casablanca (1942), I`m not much at being noble, but it doesn`t take much to see that the problems of one old actor don`t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

(part of his last letter, given to his sons after his death) Boys, don`t try to find a woman as wonderful as your mother to marry because if you do, you`ll stay single your whole lives.

(on playing "Norman Bates" in Psycho (1960)) Not many people know this, but I was in New York rehearsing for a play (Frank Loesser`s "Greenwillow") when the shower scene was filmed in Hollywood. It is rather strange to go through life being identified with this sequence knowing that it was my double. Actually, the first time I saw Psycho (1960) and that shower scene was at the studio. I found it really scary. I was just as frightened as anybody else. Working on the picture, though, was one of the happiest filming experiences of my life. We had fun making it - never realizing the impact it would have.

(When his interviewer suggested that a boy`s best friend is his mother) She`s not only his best friend, she`s his most ardent lover.

I have a lot of affection for Norman Bates and a lot of sympathy. So does the audience, I think. He`s not just a monster. He`s tortured. The real secret of the "Psycho" movies is that they`re tragedies first and horror movies second.

The violence in the "Psycho" movies is born out of plot, passion and character ... Don`t just dispatch people by six to the reel and say its entertainment.

(on playing "Norman Bates" in Psycho (1960)) Not many people know this, but I was in New York rehearsing for a play (Frank Loesser`s "Greenwillow") when the shower scene was filmed in Hollywood. It is rather strange to go through life being identified with this sequence knowing that it was my double. Actually, the first time I saw "Psycho" and that shower scene was at the studio. I found it really scary. I was just as frightened as anybody else. Working on the picture, though, was one of the happiest filming experiences of my life. We had fun making it - never realizing the impact it would have.