Charlton Heston

Academy Award-winning actor Charlton Heston has not always had rave reviews. He says he learned "The most valuable single truth about criticism" from Laurence Olivier: We'd done a blank-verse play on Broadway…and the blank verse was not Shakespeare. The critics slaughtered us&md;before the opening-night party we were doomed. Forty minutes later I found myself alone in a restaurant with Olivier and a bottle of brandy. I was young, green and striving for mature detachment. "Well," I said philosophically, I suppose you learn how to forget the bad notices."

Olivier gripped my elbow.. "Laddie!" he said. "What's much harder, and far more important…you have to learn to forget the good ones." He was right.