From his autobiography, "Songs My Mother Taught Me":

The Holocaust wasn't unique: what made it different was its scale, which to a large degree was simply a product of technology and organization. From time immemorial people have responded to similar impulses to exterminate other groups; the Nazis were more efficient at it. Nothing has eradicated our fundamental instinct to kill one another, usually under the guise of what is inevitably called a just and noble cause, religious or secular.

Essay question: Consider the current U.S. activities in the Middle East in the context of this passage. How does it relate? Does it?

All folderol aside, Brando's book, like Bob Dylan's recent memoir, is a surprisingly good read: not your standard celebrity autobiographical kiss-and-tell, but an insightful look and deconstruction of a pop icon and how and why he became that way.

Recommended.