Top 98 Quotes & Sayings by Elia Kazan - Page 2

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.

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.

You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.

I don't remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.

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

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

I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.

Wonder is our need today, not information.

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

I was able to capture on film things the actors didn't even know they were doing.

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.

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.

I was born in Turkey in an extremely oppressive climate at the time of pogroms, massacres, really. An immigrant appreciates the freedom more.

I left the theater; I literally left to begin a new life.

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.

I didn't have the problem of finding myself at 45 on the wrong course - I always wanted to be a film director.

Never underestimate the narcissism of a writer.

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.

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.

If you're going to play a cowboy, show up with the horse at the audition

People made suggestions, but, hell, I don't actually listen to anybody, I just go my own way.

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

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.

Criticism- a big bite out of someone's back.

The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.

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.

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

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.

Truth gets buried, that's why people write autobiographies.

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.

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.

I'm very pro-America, but I feel it necessary to keep in touch with Europe to maintain a perspective.

I value peace, too, when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.

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.

TV has made us get down to the nub and new films will begin to live up to what the medium can be.

You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.

Take it from a director: if you get an actor that Sandy Meisner has trained, you've been blessed.