11 quotes
Motion pictures are the most important contribution to literature and art since the invention of fiction.
Cecil De Mille Gives Views on Pictures and Art (1917)
This will probably be my last film—it will certainly be my biggest.
The Desert Gets A Wash-And-Brush-Up For ... Moses' Poses (1954)
Actors are born, and every human being is born an actor.
Hollywood News: De Mille on Acting (1941)
Legend rides high with history, but truth follows a lonely trail. I've pursued verity from the museum at Cairo to the smoking tepees of the Cheyennes at Lame Deer, Montana.
Who can tell what the years of the future will bring to the art of the motion picture in view of the amazing progress of the past few years.
Cecil De Mille Gives Views on Pictures and Art (1917)
Sensible married women usually stop acting after the honeymoon—but not their husbands. Young men go on acting parts until they reach maturity, and from there to the grave they're preoccupied with the problem of acting normal. Most men, I'm sorry to say, are "hams" at heart.
Hollywood News: De Mille on Acting (1941)
Only those who day by day are in the midst of motion pictures can really appreciate the wonderful opportunities for extraordinary things which the camera permits, and although we are still more or less in the beginning of things (I do not like to think we have really touched the great springs of the art as yet) we are struggling, working, studying all the time to better the production.
Cecil De Mille Gives Views on Pictures and Art (1917)
It's not just a good part, it's a great part, but until Miss Goddard passed her screen test as Louvette, I hadn't been able to find a Hollywood actress who both looked it and could play it convincingly. What most of the candidates lacked was imagination.
Hollywood News: De Mille on Acting (1941)
He paused to wait for my decision. Did I want the part or not? I wanted it, I told him, even though he would be paying me about one-third my usual salary. What he didn't know was that I'd have done the part for nothing.
Every year a new lesson is learned, but the one precept that never fails to be true is that a good picture will always be well received by the public. During 1933 particularly, the public displayed shrewd taste in supporting pictures which have been produced with great care and the finest of production materials.
Famous Director: His Faith in the Future (1934)
Joan the Woman was the most interesting undertaking from the point of view of the artists and the director in the history of the pictures, I believe. It is entirely different from the spectacle features, as it is essentially drama, with the story always first and most important and the spectacular features secondary, although many critics have more than praised the battles and scenes of pageantry.
Cecil De Mille Gives Views on Pictures and Art (1917)