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Orson Welles Quotes
1915–1985
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio and film. He is best remembered for his innovative work in all three media: in theatre, including Caesar (1937), a version for Broadway of Julius Caesar; in radio, the Halloween 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), considered one of the all-time greatest films.
Also known as: Welles, Orson
Random Orson Welles quote
24 quotes
Ignorance, there is no authority in the world like it.
An audience is not so much a complement to an actor's ego, as a challenge to his capacities.
speaking in an episode of Orson Welles Sketch-Book (1955)
If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.
Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.
A long-playing full shot is what always separates the men from the boys. Anybody can make movies with a pair of scissors and a two-inch lens.
I have only one real enemy in my life that I know about, and that is John Houseman. Everything begins and ends with that hostility behind the mandarin benevolence.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, strange beings who landed in New Jersey tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from Mars.
This theatre is your theatre. You are responsible for its creation and its progress.
As for my style, for my vision of the cinema, editing is not simply one aspect; it's the aspect.
I don't regard my career as something so precious that it comes before my convictions.
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.
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 try to be a Christian. I don’t pray, really, because I don’t want to bore God.
A story doesn't have to appeal to the heart; it can also appeal to the spine. Sometimes you want your heart to be warmed, and sometimes you want your spine to tingle.
I have always been more interested in experiment, than in accomplishment.
The right reading for this is the one I'm giving.
The Findus Foods "Frozen Peas" Session Out-Takes (1970)
Don't let Ted Turner deface my movie with his crayons
I don't take art as seriously as politics.
Just breathe at the end of the line or on the punctuation — if you lose that, and lose the iambic pentameter, you'll lose all the sense of what you're saying. And if you do breathe, you'll find that Shakespeare's verse is like a surf board.
It isn't worth it. No money is worth this... [walks out].
The Findus Foods "Frozen Peas" Session Out-Takes (1970)
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