Elia Kazan's Quotes

The thing about Brando was that I'd make these directions, and he'd walk away. He'd heard enough... to get the machine going.

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

There is only one thing I respect in so-called Broadway actors... and that is their competitive sense.

Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.

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

When you know what an actor has, you can reach in and arouse it. If you don't know what he has, you don't know what the hell is going on.

You can't just sit there and do the lines. You have to do something revealing or unusual.

You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.

You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.

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

I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.

I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.

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.

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.

There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.

Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.

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

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

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

I may be getting old, but not foolish.

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

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

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

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

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

I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists' advertising or recruiting technique.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

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

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

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

I didn't have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I'm glad it does.

I don't remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.

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