Elia Kazan Quotes
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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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The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.
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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.
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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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I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.
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I didn't have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I'm glad it does.
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If you're going to play a cowboy, show up with the horse at the audition.
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I left the theater; I literally left to begin a new life.
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Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.
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I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.
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I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists' advertising or recruiting technique.
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I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.
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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.
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There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.
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You can't just sit there and do the lines. You have to do something revealing or unusual.
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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.
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Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.
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Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.
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I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.
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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.
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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.
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I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.
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The world was like a huge red carpet out ahead of me to be walked on. And it stretched on and on, no end.
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I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.