Elia Kazan Quotes
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Never underestimate the narcissism of a writer.
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I may be getting old, but not foolish.
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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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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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The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.
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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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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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Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.
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Truth gets buried, that's why people write autobiographies.
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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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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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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 said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.
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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 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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The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.
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I was not what you'd call a first-class actor, but I did all right.
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The more ambivalent you are and the more uncertain you are, then you can get something that you cannot anticipate.
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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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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.
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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 like directors who come on the set and create something that's a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.
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I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.
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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.