Gregory Peck (1916 – 2003)
Renowned 20th century American actor and activist.
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Entertainment is all right, but entertainment with an idea behind it is much more important.
You have to dream, you have to have a vision, and you have to set a goal for yourself that might even scare you a little because sometimes that seems far beyond your reach. Then I think you have to develop a kind of resistance to rejection, and to the disappointments that are sure to come your way.
I think I should have been more ferocious in pursuit of the whale, more cruel to the crew, and I think I'd have a better grasp now of what Melville was talking about. Ahab focused all his energies on avenging himself against the whale, but he was trying to penetrate the mystery of why we are here at all, why there is anything. I wasn't mad enough, not crazy enough, not obsessive enough. I should have done more. ... At the time, I didn't have more in me.
They say the bad guys are more interesting to play but there is more to it than that — playing the good guys is more challenging because it's harder to make them interesting.
I don't think I could stay interested for a couple of months in a character of mean motivation.
It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all.
I put everything I had into it — all my feelings and everything I'd learned in 46 years of living, about family life and fathers and children. And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity.
I hold no brief for Communists, but I believe in and will defend their right to act independently within the law. I question whether members of the committee are interested in defending our form of government or whether they are attempting to suppress political opinion at odds with their own.
I'm not a do-gooder. It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in.
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