Woody: All Schoolyard

I was always interested in gangsters and people don't associate me with that because of their image of me on the screen. They think I'm more intellectual than I am, because I wear glasses and I'm built slightly.But the truth is I came from the streets of Brooklyn. I'm not educated—I mean I was thrown of college in my freshman year. My father was always, you know, a cab driver or a pool hustler. He ran a pool room. He worked for Albert Anastasia for a while, taking bets at Saratoga. I had always had an interest in and a feeling for that.I'm not a gangster, but I'm more of that world. I'm more the guy that's home with a beer in his undershirt watching the Television set, than I am pouring over, you know, the Russian novelists. I mean, I've read things over the years to keep up with my dates, but the truth of the matter is my heart has always been at the ballpark.

Woody Allen to Richard Schickel