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John Huston Was The Kind Of Director That Totally Left You Alone. Not Every Actor Always Does It Right, Every Time, But Most Of The Time He Was Re-directing Someone. He Was Making Tight Adjustments, And Not Even In Terms Of Interpretation Because He Knew That By The Time That The Character Had Been Filmed... Well, He Got It Right When He Cast You.

-Theodore Bikel

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John Huston Was The

Theodore Bikel

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John Huston Was The Kind Of Director That Totally Left You Alone. Not Every Actor Always Does It Right, Every Time, But Most Of The Time He Was Re-directing Someone. He Was Making Tight Adjustments, And Not Even In Terms Of Interpretation Because He Knew That By The Time That The Character Had Been Filmed... Well, He Got It Right When He Cast You.

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I Am A Zionist, An Ardent Supporter Of Israel, Its Defender When I Deem Israel To Be Right And Its Critic When I Deem It To Be Wrong.

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You Cannot Please All Of The People All Of The Time, And That Is Truer In The Arts Than Anywhere Else.

Audiences Are Audiences.

I Am Filled With Awe That Filmmakers Have The Capacity To Stir Us And Give Us Back A Sense Of Wonder.

You Can't Expect The Entire World To Come To New York To See You. You Have To Travel To Them.

You Learn More From The Flops Than From The Hits.

I Do Not Know Who There Is Among Us That Can Claim To Know God's Purpose And God's Intent.

I Have Always Striven To Raise The Voice Of Hope For A World Where Hate Gives Way To Respect And Oppression To Liberation.

I Am A Universalist, Passionately Devoted To The Cause Of Equality Within The Human Family.

But, When I Toil In The Field Of Jewish Culture Which I Frequently Do, I Am Indeed A Jewish Artist.

No Movement Can Afford To Be Caught In A Time Warp And Exist In A State Of Suspended Animation.

Epistemology Is The Study Of Knowledge. By What Conduit Do We Know What We Know?

Every Actor Wants To Direct And Produce, But I Made A Conscious Decision When I Was In College To Understand The 'business' Of 'show Business.'

I Refuse To Do Shows That Are Narrowly Constructed, That Appeal To Only One Sentiment. I Do A Lot Of Jewish Material In Front Of Non-jews And A Lot Of Non-jewish Material In Front Of Jews On The Simple Theory That The Non-jews Are Entitled To A Glimpse Of A Jewish World And The Jews Are Entitled To A Glimpse Of The World.

Although I Am Deeply Grateful To A Great Many People, I Forgo The Temptation Of Naming Them For Fear That I Might Slight Any By Omission.

When Something Is Moving You Get That Intake Of Breath And That Stillness From The Audience.

I Tried For A While To Be An Agricultural Worker And Was Hopelessly Bored. To Me It Was Meaningless. I Would Stand Around In Heaps Of Manure And Sings About The Beauty Of The Work I Wasn't Doing.

I Am Determined To Give The Yiddish Language A Fighting Chance To Survive.

An Actor Is Supposed To Emulate Life. Instead, Alas, Many Are Imitating Other Actors. You Don't Fashion Your Knowledge Of Theatre Or Your Approach To A Role On The Basis Of What Other Actors Have Done. This Kind Of Thinking Is A Great Danger, Especially In Dealing With Tv Producers Who Frequently Say Things Like, 'this Is A Sean Connery Type.'

I Remain Convinced That I Can Be A True Universalist Only When I Am A Better Jew.

Accents. I'm Very Good With Accents. I'm Exceedingly Good.

You Don't Really Need Modernity In Order To Exist Totally And Fully. You Need A Mixture Of Modernity And Tradition.

I Created The Role Of Captain Von Trapp.

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Retiring' - Within That Word Is 'tiring,' And I'm Not Tired. I Don't Believe In Retirement, Really.

I Am Not, And Have Never Been, In Favor Of Boycotting Israel.

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No Heirloom Of Humankind Captures The Past As Do Art And Language.

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