Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams.

Some of the tributes that have affected me the most have come from my 'fans' - friends - men, women, and little children. God bless them. Indeed, I feel that my recovery has been greatly advanced by the encouragement given me by everyone.

I used to go to the stables and fool with the mules. My mother lived in constant fear that I might be brought home with a hoof print on my stomach.

I usually played out and out heavies. No one else 'saw' me in any other role. No one else had ever believed I could be anything but a heavy. It was a heavy in a picture with Clara Kimball Young that June Mathis saw me and decided to cast me as Julio. 'There is the man for Julio,' she said, 'He, and no one other.'

I became to myself an imaginary figure of great excellence, daring and glamor.

June. June Mathis. No, no one else, ever. She gave me my start. She first, of all people, believed in me.