"I'll tell you a story," he says, trying again to explain what has
happened, what is different now. A director Hoffman worked with
received copious notes from studio heads on a film he was happy with.
Notes demanding all sorts of changes. But the director didn't argue,
didn't get angry, he simply smiled and said, "It's your film. You do
what you think is best. Just take my name off it."
(The studio withdrew its notes, and the film went on to be nominated
for several Oscars including best picture.)
When the director told Hoffman what had happened, the actor was
flabbergasted. "I said, 'How can you do that? Your work, that's your
work. How could you just turn it over?' And he said, 'Yes, but that is
not who I am. My work is not my identity. I am my identity.' "
-- Dustin Hoffman in interview, "Introspective and at
ease" By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, April 10,
2005, p. E23.