Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm going to make a film where not one word is really important. I'm going to make it all action.
TV has made us get down to the nub and new films will begin to live up to what the medium can be.
The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.
Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
Take it from a director: if you get an actor that Sandy Meisner has trained, you've been blessed.
I question the value of stars. I think they're overrated. They get too much money, too much praise.
I'm very pro-America, but I feel it necessary to keep in touch with Europe to maintain a perspective.
There is only one thing I respect in so-called Broadway actors... and that is their competitive sense.
Acting, I found, was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
The world was like a huge red carpet out ahead of me to be walked on. And it stretched on and on, no end.
What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.
I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.
Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.
I like directors who come on the set and create something that's a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.
I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.
For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.
I didn't have the problem of finding myself at 45 on the wrong course - I always wanted to be a film director.
The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.
The more ambivalent you are and the more uncertain you are, then you can get something that you cannot anticipate.
I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists' advertising or recruiting technique.
I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.
I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.
The thing about Brando was that I'd make these directions, and he'd walk away. He'd heard enough... to get the machine going.
I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.
To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but is bitter and unforgettable.
The first thing you should do with an actor is not sign a contract with him. Take him to dinner. And take him for a walk afterwards.
The physical life of the scene is determined by whether the set squeezes people together or whether the set has an escape place in it.
To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but it is bitter and unforgettable.
When you know what an actor has, you can reach in and arouse it. If you don't know what he has, you don't know what the hell is going on.
I was born in Turkey in an extremely oppressive climate at the time of pogroms, massacres, really. An immigrant appreciates the freedom more.
The only guy who was at all helpful as a producer was Sam Spiegel with On the Waterfront. He's one of the few who even knows what he's doing.
Miller didn't write Death of a Salesman. He released it. It was there inside him, waiting to be turned loose. That's the measure of its merit.
The camera is more than a recorder, it's a microscope. It penetrates, it goes into people and you see their most private and concealed thoughts.
I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.
Look for the contradictions in every character, especially in your heroes and villains. No one should be what they first seem to be. Surprise the audience.
I won't go back to the theater. I like some of the things they're doing but it's different now, not something I could do. I'll go on making films the rest of my life.
I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.
I was both very successful and very left; the living demonstration of how you could be on the left and still be in the gossip columns and be envied for the money you made.
With kids you can take a chance but casting a guy at 45 is different. You don't discover somebody that age. If an actor hasn't made it by that time he probably has no talent.
One final thing a director needs: The ability to say 'I am wrong' or 'I was wrong.' Not as easy as it sounds. But in many situations, these 3 words, honestly spoken, will save the day.
I know many of the critics and I don't think of them as God-like figures. What can they do to hurt me? Sure, I might be slightly embarrassed for a day, but then you just go your own way.
The thing with films is that you have to make something that will get people out of their houses, away from the TV set. You must touch people, say something. Otherwise, they'll stay at home.
There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.
I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.
I've come to believe that everything worth achieving is beyond one's capacity - or seems so at first. The thing is to persist, not back off, fight your fight, pay your dues, and carry on. Effort is all; continue and you may get there despite everything.
It's difficult, if not impossible, to get away with anything false before the camera. That instrument penetrates the husk of the actor; it reveals what's truly happening - if anything, if nothing. A close-up demands absolute truth. It's a severe and awesome truth
Some directors, like Stevens [George Stevens], shoot full circle, 360 degrees, and that's what's right for them. I generally shoot at about a seven to one ratio. But part of that is because I've worked on every screenplay, so I'm further along in the visual concept.
There aren't many male stars - that's a loose term - like Kirk [Douglas] around. Most of those virile personalities have to keep working, continue the image because they can't do anything else. They don't even read. Their real identity is in making those pictures. They have to keep jumping on horses and hitting somebody on the head with a gun.