Elia Kazan Quotes
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Truth gets buried, that's why people write autobiographies.
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The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.
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Never underestimate the narcissism of a writer.
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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.
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I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.
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I may be getting old, but not foolish.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a witch doctor, a psychoanalyst, and a feared father of a Jewish home.... He was the force that held the thirty-odd members of the theatre together, and made them permanent.
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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.
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Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.
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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.
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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.
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I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.
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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.
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I was not what you'd call a first-class actor, but I did all right.
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I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.
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I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.
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The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.
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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.
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A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.
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The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.
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Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.