Top 9 Quotes & Sayings by Arthur Penn

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American director Arthur Penn.

Last updated on November 8, 2024.

Arthur Hiller Penn was an American director and producer of film, television and theater. Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 1960s such as the drama The Chase (1966), the biographical crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and the comedy Alice's Restaurant (1969). He also received attention for his acclaimed revisionist Western Little Big Man (1970). Night Moves (1975) and The Missouri Breaks (1976) which were commercial flops, though the first generated positive reviews.

American - Director | September 27, 1922 - September 28, 2010

Source: Wikipedia

One has a sort of spiritual obligation to go back to the source material of the literature, to make contact with one of the seminal plays of the modern theater.

Arthur Penn

I don't storyboard. I guess it dates back to my days in live television, where there was no possibility of storyboarding and everything was shot right on the spot - on the air, as we say - at the moment we were transmitting. I prefer to be open to what the actors do, how they interact to the given situation.

Arthur Penn

I think there's a quality of passion to the American actor. I'm certainly attracted to it, and I like to hope that underscoring it is a characteristic of my work. That quality is certainly also present in some British actors, but I tend to feel the mechanical and intellectual process is dominant in the British.

Arthur Penn

A lot of directors in television have come up through the technical ranks. They have all the technical skills in the world. They're not all that familiar with actors.

Arthur Penn

I believe, and this is perhaps too nationalistic a view, that the American style of acting puts actors quickly in touch with each other, so that their continuous presence in a company, as in England, is not absolutely necessary.

Arthur Penn

'400 Blows' was so much like my own childhood, it really stunned me.

Arthur Penn

I believe that a large part of the training in the regional theaters is in imitation of the British style of acting. The British orientation is textual; they start from the language and work toward the character.

Arthur Penn

Good actors go to emotional places where nobody else wants to go.

Arthur Penn

Tap into what you don't want to say. Tap into that secret place, despite the agony, despite the personal pain, over and above the fatigue.

Arthur Penn