This is from the Youngstown Vindicator dated May 23, 1970, by Paul Steiner:

NEW YORK - Dustin Hoffman, one of the world’s most publicized movie stars, feels his life and opinions have not been written about with kindness and consideration, but often with a cynicism and vindictiveness as if they who “made him” a star were “out to get him.”

He has thus avoided interviews whenever he could. But he does dig and trust kids. To show his appreciation to dozens of high school youngsters and writers and editors of high school papers who had written to him over the months, he invited them all in for a chat. I was the only professional newsman present.

Sitting on the edge of a bare stage in an empty Broadway theater, Dustin took on all comers for close to three hours. Never once did he talk down to the kids. It was almost as if he was trying to explain himself to his analyst (whom he still visits several times a week.)

“I know the Oscar doesn’t really mean a thing, yet I want to win one! (He lost is twice.) Same thing with the Tony Awards. I was rooting for a friend to win, yet, at the ceremony, I felt bad we didn’t win for ‘Jimmy Shine.’ I wish I could explain the contractions.”

“Which living person do you admire most?” asked a redhead.

“Muhammad Ali (Cassius’ Clay)! Why? First he made his public like him, then he mocked them, then he made these same people hate him! That’s real class!”

“What about campus revolt and the Black Panthers?” asked a longhair.

“I haven’t been on campus, I’ve been acting. So I know little about it. The students have grievances, reasons to protest. I just wish I knew more about it. From what I know about the Black Panthers, I just can’t believe all the things the police and press attribute to them. They’re fighting for black rights.

“But being a well-known actor doesn’t make me an expert on everything,” Dustin readily conceded. “I used to laugh — and still do — at those celebrities who hold forth each night with their inexpert expert opinions on TV talk shows. I wish I’d reached the point where I’d have to do no publicity at all, but often it’s in the contract.”

“Are you a star?” asked a 15-year-old blonde.

“I guess that’s what I am,” grinned Dustin. “I feel no one in this country becomes an actor unless he wants to become a star. As a star, you exist to be loved and hated, to be lifted up by the public and then dragged down. There’s no aristocracy in this country, so the movie stars are our kings and queens.

“I think I’ve got this star complex figured out. I think it’s tied in with a sex complex. As their sexual goal, Americans tend to pick the unattainable — it used to be Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe. Now it’s Liz Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch. Guys are apt to lust after a beauty they know they cannot possibly attain. I wonder what they’d do, if BB or Raquel said ‘yes’ to them!

“Often when I leave a theater or set, there’d be a crowd of screaming girls of all ages, mostly young ones, of course. They’d grab at me, tear my things off. But whenever I’d approach one, quietly, and ask her to have a soda or dinner with me, she’d back away, flustered, embarrassed, apologetic, completely shaken. She didn’t want me for real! She only desired me as an unreachable star! Crazy, man, crazy!”

The boys in the audience laughed, the girls giggled. Then several kids wanted to know Dustin’s attitudes about acting.

“As opposed to painting, sculpting and composing, acting is a minor art form. I’ve always been suspicious of actors who say ‘If I couldn’t act, I’d kill myself.’ I don’t feel that way. The only thing I don’t like about acting is not working.”

“You play Tarzan, and people think you’re Tarzan, even people who should know better. How often did I have to tell adults and kids that I’m not Benjamin, that I just played this guy Benjy in ‘The Graduate’?”

Why did he turn down playing Portnoy in the upcoming movie version of “Portnoy’s Complaint”? “It wasn’t for me — anybody can play Portnoy.”

Dustin said he’d like to play Hitler. A black girl asked: “You’re Jewish, aren’t you? Why Hitler, then?”

“I think I could imbue him with certain qualities,” replied Dustin, “maybe even comical qualities. There are certain things one can only do onstage, not in private life. For instance, I cannot dance socially, only on the stage. Offstage, I’d be inhibited, people will laugh at me when I dance. Onstage, I don’t mind.”