Orson Welles Quotes
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The classy gangster is a Hollywood invention.
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One shouldn't ever be conscious of the author as lecturer. When social or moral points are too heavily stressed, I always get uncomfortable.
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I'm a provincial. I live very much like a hermit: reading, listening to music, working in the cutting room, writing, commercial work - which doesn't take up that much time.
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Only very intelligent people don't wish they were in politics, and I'm dumb enough to want to be in there.
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I can think of nothing that an audience won't understand. The only problem is to interest them; once they are interested, they understand anything in the world.
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I've never understood the cult of Hitchcock. Particularly the late American movies... Egotism and laziness. And they're all lit like television shows.
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'The Godfather' was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed.
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When television came along, I'd already done more than 10 years of radio work and I thought everyone would want me. I sat around waiting for the phone to ring - and it didn't.
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Men created civilization only to impress their girl friends
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Hollywood is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which does not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation.
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The ideal American type is perfectly expressed by the Protestant, individualist, anti-conformist, and this is the type that is in the process of disappearing. In reality there are few left.
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I have always been more interested in experiment, than in accomplishment.
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If I ever own a restaurant, I will never allow the waiters to ask if the diners like their dishes. Particularly when they're talking.
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Criminals are never very amusing. It's because they're failures. Those who make real money aren't counted as criminals. This is a class distinction, not an ethical problem.
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As a producer, sitting on the other side of the desk, I have never once had an agent go out on a limb for his client and fight for him. I've never heard one say, 'No, just a minute! This is the actor you should use.' They will always say, 'You don't like him? I've got somebody else.' They're totally spineless.
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The laws and the stage, both are a form of exhibitionism.
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The only reason for doing a play is to make a statement about it, and by that I don't mean a conceit of the producer.
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Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.
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I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.
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If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.
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Look at the real prodigies, and I look like nothing compared to them.
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Each multiplex has screens allocated to each studio. The screens need filling. Studios have to create product to fill their screen, and the amount of good product is limited.
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The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age.
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Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.