Elia Kazan Quotes - Page 4

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.

I was not what you'd call a first-class actor, but I did all right.

The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.

The physical life of the scene is determined by whether the set squeezes people together or whether the set has an escape place in it.

You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.

You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.

When you know what an actor has, you can reach in and arouse it. If you don't know what he has, you don't know what the hell is going on.

The makers of entertainment must try, in our field, to be honest and grown-up.

I won't go back to the theater. I like some of the things they're doing but it's different now, not something I could do. I'll go on making films the rest of my life.

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.

I left the theater; I literally left to begin a new life.

I didn't have the problem of finding myself at 45 on the wrong course - I always wanted to be a film director.