Quotes of the day- Orson Welles:
George Orson Welles (May
6, 1915 - October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer and
producer who worked extensively in theater, radio and film. He is best
remembered for his innovative work in all three media, most notably Caesar
(1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaption of Julius Caesar and
the debut of the Mercury Theatre; The War of the Worlds (1938),
the most famous broadcast in the history of radio; and Citizen Kane
(1941), which is consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest
films. (Click
for full article.)
A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what's for lunch.
Ecstasy is not really part of the scene we can do on celluloid.
Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him.
Gluttony is not a secret vice.
Hollywood is Hollywood. There's nothing you can say about it that isn't true, good or bad. And if you get into it, you have no right to be bitter- you're the one who sat down, and joined the game.
I don't regard my career as something so precious that it comes before my convictions.
I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.
I don't take art as seriously as politics.
I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.
I have always been more interested in experiment, than in accomplishment.
I passionately hate the idea of being “with it.” I think an artist is always out of step with his time. He has to be.
I started at the top and worked down.
If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror,
murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo de Vinci,
and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had
five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce?
The cuckoo clock.
(spoken by Orson Welles in the film The Third Man)
It's about two percent movie-making and ninety-eight percent hustling. It's no way to spend a life.
Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad, except that you never know when luxury is going to stand up.
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.
Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.
Old age is the only disease you don't want to be cured of.
The director is the most overrated artist in the world. He is the only artist who, with no talent whatsoever, can be a success for 50 years without his lack of talent ever being discovered.
The ideal American type is perfectly expressed by the Protestant, individualist, anti-conformist, and this is the type that is in the process of disappearing. In reality there are few left.
There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.
There are three intolerable things in life- cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.
We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.
When you are down and out, something always turns up- and it is usually the noses of your friends.
(YouTube video: Welles' final interview. He died a few hours after this taping.)
Categories: Orson Welles, Quotes of the day
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