Orson Welles Quotes - Page 2

Working is part of life, I don't know how to distinguish between the two... Work is an expression of life.

Criticism is the essence of creation.

Ignorance sheer ignorance. There is no confidence to equal it. It's only when you know something about a profession that you are timid or careful.

I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it - yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don't give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.

A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.

I hate women, hate them generally, not in particular but in an abstract way. I hate them because one never really learns anything about them. They are inscrutable.

Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in senate.

I have always been more interested in experiment, than in accomplishment.

There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.

When you are down and out something always turns up - and it is usually the noses of your friends.

Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest.

Never expect justice in this world. That is not part of God's plan. Everybody thinks that if they don't get it, they're some kind of odd man out. And it's not true. Nobody gets justice - people just get good luck or bad luck.

Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool her husband, I figure she'll fool me.

Human nature is eternal; therefore one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end.

A movie in production is the greatest train set a boy could ever have.

The most personal thing I've put in [Touch of Evil] is my hatred of the abuse of police power. It's better to see a murderer go free than for a policeman to abuse his power.

There are three intolerable things in life - cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.

I'm not basically a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy.

Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad except that you never know when luxury is going to stand up.

Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.

They teach anything in universities today. You can major in mud pies.

I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.

I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.

I can think of nothing that an audience won't understand. The only problem is to interest them; once they are interested, they understand anything in the world.

A bad word from a colleague can darken a whole day. We need encouragement a lot more than we admit, even to ourselves.