Bad Bernard

Bernard Herrmann on a bad day -

I always find difficult people [eg Orson Welles] easy. I only find glad-Harrys difficult and vacuous. Nice guys are difficult. It's because they're a bunch of empty-heads, that's why they're nice guys! They pretend to be nice guys, but it's a disguise. They're not nice. They're vicious, vindictive people who try to make sure that anything good hasn't got a chance!

From a 1971 Los Angeles Free Press interview quoted in A Heart At Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann (University of California Press, 1991) by Stephen Smith.