“The character of Annie Doultry is plainly a self-portrait of Brando. There are transcripts of conferences he and Cammell had, and Brando did a lot of improvising, playing the Annie Doultry character. Plainly he saw this as a part that he might play in a movie himself.”
“There's a funny thing to when you're writing something that's not quite yours. You feel unburdened. There's a strange liberty to it, although I was still trying to be faithful to them.”
“Brando clearly was imagining himself as that person. There are several aspects of it that fit with Brando very well; that kind of loner, interested in sailing and the South Seas, drawn to Asian women and eating and drinking.”
“I'd say where he is now he's in a pretty amused state, and I hope he'd look down on it fondly with a smile. Everyone involved has tried to produce the book (Brando and Cammell) would have.”
“It's not profound literature, but it's an adventure story and quite a good adventure story, very unexpected coming from Brando. It tells us a lot about him.”
“He made the South Seas a great part of his life. Clearly this story comes out of the books he read and the things he learned about the seas during his time out there. He was also crazy about Asian women.”
“I don't look for anyone to say this is a great novel, although I do think it's a fine, fun read. But what I think is most interesting is that the character of Annie is so clearly a portrait of Brando and that so much of him gets into it.”
“Cammell's, I suppose, was a failed career, ... but it was a good deal more interesting than the careers of many people who were much more successful. He was quite a remarkable man.”
