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I Question The Value Of Stars. I Think They're Overrated. They Get Too Much Money, Too Much Praise.

-Elia Kazan

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I Question The Value

Elia Kazan

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I Question The Value Of Stars. I Think They're Overrated. They Get Too Much Money, Too Much Praise.

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I Was Born In Turkey In An Extremely Oppressive Climate At The Time Of Pogroms, Massacres, Really. An Immigrant Appreciates The Freedom More.

The Motion Pictures I Have Made And The Plays I Have Chosen To Direct Represent My Convictions.

Criticism- A Big Bite Out Of Someone's Back.

Anybody Who Informs On Other People Is Doing Something Disturbing And Even Disgusting.

I Will Say Nothing To An Actor That Cannot Be Translated Into Action.

I'm Going To Make A Film Where Not One Word Is Really Important. I'm Going To Make It All Action.

A Film Director Has To Get A Shot, No Matter What He Does. We're Desperate People.

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 Knew The Exuberance Of Playing Before An Admiring Audience And Hearing My Secret Voice.

You Have No Idea How Fragile An Actor's Self-worth Is.

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.

Stylized Acting And Direction Is To Realistic Acting And Direction As Poetry Is To Prose.

I Left The Theater; I Literally Left To Begin A New Life.

I've Come To Believe That Everything Worth Achieving Is Beyond One's Capacity - Or Seems So At First. The Thing Is To Persist, Not Back Off, Fight Your Fight, Pay Your Dues, And Carry On. Effort Is All; Continue And You May Get There Despite Everything.

I Question The Value Of Stars. I Think They're Overrated. They Get Too Much Money, Too Much Praise.

I Didn't Have The Problem Of Finding Myself At 45 On The Wrong Course - I Always Wanted To Be A Film Director.

The World Was Like A Huge Red Carpet Out Ahead Of Me To Be Walked On. And It Stretched On And On, No End.

I Said To Tennessee, This Thing Is Becoming The Marlon Brando Show.

I Joined The Communist Party Late In The Summer Of 1934. I Got Out A Year And A Half Later.

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.

I Value Peace, Too, When It Is Not Bought At The Price Of Fundamental Decencies.

I Was Not What You'd Call A First-class Actor, But I Did All Right.

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.

Every Fighter Has One Fight That Makes Or Breaks Him.

I May Be Getting Old, But Not Foolish.

I Was Very Intense. I Think It's A Privilege To Be An Actor.

The Real Challenge Is Not Simply To Survive. Hell, Anyone Can Do That. It’s To Survive As Yourself, Undiminished.

I Used To Spend Most Of My Time Straining To Be A Nice Guy So People Would Like Me.

The Thing With Films Is That You Have To Make Something That Will Get People Out Of Their Houses, Away From The Tv Set. You Must Touch People, Say Something. Otherwise, They'll Stay At Home.

I Was The Hero Of The Young Insurgent Working Class Art Movement.

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.

I'm Small, But I'm Neither Compliant Nor Agreeable.

A Good Director's Not Sure When He Gets On The Set What He's Going To Do.

I Owe Bankhead A Gift; She Made A Director Out Of Me.

Very Often The Group Actor Is A Critic When He's Acting And An Actor When He's Criticizing.

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.

The Communists Automatically Violated The Daily Practices Of Democracy To Which I Was Accustomed.

You Have To Remind People Of Their Own Struggles. It's A Responsibility.

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.

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.

I Was Taken In By What Might Be Called The Hard Times Version Of The Communists' Advertising Or Recruiting Technique.

There Is Only One Thing I Respect In So-called Broadway Actors... And That Is Their Competitive Sense.

For Years After I Resigned, I Was Still Faithful To Their Way Of Thinking. But Not In The American Communists.

Never Underestimate The Narcissism Of A Writer.

Never Underestimate

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.

I Was Able To Capture On Film Things The Actors Didn't Even Know They Were Doing.

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I Think There Should Be Collaboration, But Under My Thumb.

Every Picture That Is Successful Has One Little Miracle In It.

Tv Has Made Us Get Down To The Nub And New Films Will Begin To Live Up To What The Medium Can Be.

I Was Always A Self-conscious Person.

Whatever Hysteria Exists Is Inflamed By Mystery, Suspicion And Secrecy. Hard And Exact Facts Will Cool It.

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Wonder Is Our Need Today, Not Information.

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.

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Building Something

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I Want To Thank The Academy For Its Courage And Generosity.

I Know Many Of The Critics And I Don't Think Of Them As God-like Figures. What Can They Do To Hurt Me? Sure, I Might Be Slightly Embarrassed For A Day, But Then You Just Go Your Own Way.

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I Won't Go Back To The Theater. I Like Some Of The Things They're Doing But It's Different Now, Not Something I Could Do. I'll Go On Making Films The Rest Of My Life.

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If You're Going To Play A Cowboy, Show Up With The Horse At The Audition

Hey, You Must Be Doin' Good, 'cause I Never Hear From You.

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The Writer, When He Is Also An Artist, Is Someone Who Admits What Others Don't Dare Reveal.

It's Difficult, If Not Impossible, To Get Away With Anything False Before The Camera. That Instrument Penetrates The Husk Of The Actor; It Reveals What's Truly Happening - If Anything, If Nothing. A Close-up Demands Absolute Truth. It's A Severe And Awesome Truth

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I Was The True Future. I Understood Communism Better Than They Did.

The More Ambivalent You Are And The More Uncertain You Are, Then You Can Get Something That You Cannot Anticipate.

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.

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What's Called A Difficult Decision Is A Difficult Decision Because Either Way You Go There Are Penalties.

Truth Gets Buried, That's Why People Write Autobiographies.

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