Human nature is eternal; therefore one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end.
ORSON WELLESHuman nature is eternal; therefore one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end.
ORSON WELLESThere are three intolerable things in life – cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.
ORSON WELLESA movie in production is the greatest train set a boy could ever have.
ORSON WELLESThe 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.
ORSON WELLESCriminals are never very amusing. It’s because they’re failures. Those who make real money aren’t counted as criminals. This is a class distinction, not an ethical problem.
ORSON WELLESThe enemy of art is the absence of limitations.
ORSON WELLESAt twenty-one, so many things appear solid, permanent, untenable.
ORSON WELLESEvery true artist must, in his own way, be a magician, a charlatan.
ORSON WELLESI’m one of those fellows so frightened of driving that I go 80 miles an hour – and the more frightened I get, the faster I go.
ORSON WELLESFriendship creates only the illusion of not being alone.
ORSON WELLESMy kind of director is an actor-director who writes.
ORSON WELLESThe director is the most overrated artist in the world. He is the only artist who, with no talent whatsoever, can be a success for 50 years without his lack of talent ever being discovered.
ORSON WELLESI seem to have no dress sense at all. I’m always being listed in New York among one of the ten worst dressed men of the year. Someone once described me as “looking like an unmade bed.” He was right!
ORSON WELLESOnly in a police state is the job of a policeman easy.
ORSON WELLESThe most personal thing I’ve put in [Touch of Evil] is my hatred of the abuse of police power. It’s better to see a murderer go free than for a policeman to abuse his power.
ORSON WELLESI’m never certain of a performance – my own or the other actors’ – or the script or anything. But to me it seems there’s only one place in the world the camera can be, and the decision usually comes immediately.
ORSON WELLES