Elia Kazan Quotes

I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.

The world was like a huge red carpet out ahead of me to be walked on. And it stretched on and on, no end.

What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.

The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.

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.

Take it from a director: if you get an actor that Sandy Meisner has trained, you've been blessed.

Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.

I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.

You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.

Wonder is our need today, not information.

The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.

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

I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.

A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people.

I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.

I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.

One final thing a director needs: The ability to say 'I am wrong' or 'I was wrong.' Not as easy as it sounds. But in many situations, these 3 words, honestly spoken, will save the day.

Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.

I was born in Turkey in an extremely oppressive climate at the time of pogroms, massacres, really. An immigrant appreciates the freedom more.

I value peace, too, when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.

I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

I joined the Communist Party late in the summer of 1934. I got out a year and a half later.

I like directors who come on the set and create something that's a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.

Never underestimate the narcissism of a writer.

I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.

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.

Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.

The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.

I was able to capture on film things the actors didn't even know they were doing.

I may be getting old, but not foolish.

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.

The first thing you should do with an actor is not sign a contract with him. Take him to dinner. And take him for a walk afterwards.

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.

The more ambivalent you are and the more uncertain you are, then you can get something that you cannot anticipate.

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.

I want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity.

I'm going to make a film where not one word is really important. I'm going to make it all action.

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

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.

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.

I was the true future. I understood Communism better than they did.

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.

I was always a self-conscious person.

I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.

I owe Bankhead a gift; she made a director out of me.

For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

I was the hero of the young insurgent working class art movement.

To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but it is bitter and unforgettable.

Hey, you must be doin' good, 'cause I never hear from you.