One time, always a little squirmy when it came to giving interviews, Paul Newman sat in the dining room of his Manhattan apartment and explained his press-shyness.  “After you’ve answered the same questions 134 times, it’s hard to come up with new answers,” he said.  “And that makes me feel dull.”  Just then his wife — who sometimes called him Sam Superstar — swept in and sensed a cue.  Said Joanne Woodward to her dazzling husband: “But you are dull.”

“It was a hot August day and I had been out making the rounds, and I was sweaty because in those days you had to wear your high heels and your gloves and everything. I went into my agent’s office because it had air conditioning, and I was sitting out talking to my friend who was the receptionist. What looked like an ad for an ice cream soda, there was Paul in a seersucker suit, which looked so pristine, and his shirt, no sweat, big blue eyes, lots of curly hair and everything, and I thought… ugh! Oh that’s disgusting!” - Joanne Woodward, on seeing Paul for the first time

Edward R. Murrow: Joanne, you once remarked that when you got married you wanted to marry an actor better than you. How do you feel about that now or is that putting you on the spot?
Joanne Woodward: Seriously, I think I was quite lucky because I think that’s exactly what I did, because Paul is not only a great actor - and that’s all I can do, all I can do is act - but he can produce and direct and he’s a pretty good writer, too. So I think that’s phenomenal.
Paul Newman: She’ll get that new pair of shoes now, Ed.

“It’s really sort of a sore spot because we live in what I call an age of conformity, where you have to travel with the herd. If you don’t travel with the herd and if you don’t say yes to that little man who’s leading the pack, you’re branded as a rebel. I am trying desperately - I hope - to be an individual. I think there’s quite a bit of difference. Actually, I can’t stand them, they drive me out of my mind. The rebels. I see them at parties and they sit in corners looking terrible sensitive and introverted, and yet my feeling is they’re just as mediocre as the people they despise who are the conformists. Their answers are always pre-determined, the rebel always has to say no to everything society asks of him just as the conformist always has to say yes.” - Paul Newman, on being labelled a rebel