Elia Kazan Quotes (70 Quotes)


    I thought what a terrible thing I had done not the political aspect of it because maybe that was correct but it didn't matter now. Correct or not, all that mattered was the human side of things. I felt no political cause was worth hurting another human being for.

    Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.

    I've been ratting on myself all these years and I didn't know it. I'm glad what I done.

    Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.

    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.


    Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.

    I was the true future. I understood Communism better than they did.

    I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.

    The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.

    I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.

    Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

    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.

    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.

    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.

    I was very intense. I think it's a privilege to be an actor.

    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.

    Our relationship was cursed by the fact that we agreed on everything.

    For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

    You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.

    There is only one thing I respect in so-called Broadway actors... and that is their competitive sense.

    I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

    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.

    Hey, you must be doin' good, 'cause I never hear from you.

    I owe Bankhead a gift; she made a director out of me.

    Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.

    The makers of entertainment must try, in our field, to be honest and grown-up.

    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.

    I think there should be collaboration, but under my thumb.

    The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.

    The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.

    I like directors who come on the set and create something that's a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.

    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 was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.

    I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.

    I may be getting old, but not foolish.

    I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists' advertising or recruiting technique.

    The world was like a huge red carpet out ahead of me to be walked on. And it stretched on and on, no end.

    A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people.

    I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.

    A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

    I'm going to make a film where not one word is really important. I'm going to make it all action.

    I want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity.

    If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film, I don't know what it is.

    I was not what you'd call a first-class actor, but I did all right.

    I'm small, but I'm neither compliant nor agreeable.

    You can't just sit there and do the lines. You have to do something revealing or unusual.

    I was always a self-conscious person.

    I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.

    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.


    More Elia Kazan Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Movies - Performance Arts - Actions - People - Money & Wealth - America - Acting - Thought & Thinking - Charity - Sense & Perception - Communism & Marxism - Politics - Future - Facts - Mystery - World - Democracy - Man - Criticism - View All Elia Kazan Quotations

    Related Authors


    Sam Wood - Robert Zemeckis - Peter Jackson - Paul Haggis - M. Night Shyamalan - Luc Besson - John Woo - Jean-Jacques Annaud - Ingmar Bergman - Cameron Crowe


Page 1 of 2 1 2

Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections