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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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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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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I may be getting old, but not foolish.
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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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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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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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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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Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.
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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 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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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 Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.
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I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.
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Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.
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I was very intense. I think it's a privilege to be an actor.
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I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.
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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 like directors who come on the set and create something that's a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.
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The more ambivalent you are and the more uncertain you are, then you can get something that you cannot anticipate.