"I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man."

"Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage."

"To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!"

"This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to cope with it."

"Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."

"All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman."

"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."

"Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is 'elephant'."

"The glamour of it all! New York! America!"

"I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born."

"Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded."

"What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning."

"A man's true character comes out when he's drunk."

"Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing."

"A day without laughter is a day wasted."

"We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery."

"The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury."

"Why should poetry have to make sense?"

"A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure."

"I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President."

"We might as well die as to go on living like this."

"In the end, everything is a gag."

"I am for people. I can't help it."

"I'd sooner be called a successful crook than a destitute monarch."

"I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. everything a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large."

"Actors search for rejection. If they don't get it they reject themselves."

"I suppose that's one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment."

"I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose."

"Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people."

"Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone."

"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."

"All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl."

"Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference."

"I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can't help it. It's the truth."

"The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish."

"I don't believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career."

"Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain."

"To help a friend in need is easy, but to give him your time is not always opportune."