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I’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

Only in a police state is the job of a policeman easy.
ORSON WELLES

Easy Job Police
I’m not basically a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy.
ORSON WELLES

Happiness Joy Kind Myself Person
A bad word from a colleague can darken a whole day. We need encouragement a lot more than we admit, even to ourselves.
ORSON WELLES

Bad Darkness Day Encouragement Need Ourselves Word
The classy gangster is a Hollywood invention.
ORSON WELLES

Hollywood Invention
The 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 WELLES

Abuse Better Evil Freedom Hate Murder Personal Police Power See
Paris is the playwright’s delight. New York is the home of directors. London, however, is the actor’s city, the only one in the world. In London, actors are given their head.
ORSON WELLES

Actor Director Home Movie Play Respect World Worth
A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.
ORSON WELLES

Army Artist Movie Need Pen Writing
Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest.
ORSON WELLES

Big Modesty Tough
I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.
ORSON WELLES

Act Audience Meaning Myself Work
When people accept breaking the law as normal, something happens to the whole society.
ORSON WELLES

Acceptance Break Law Normal People Society
The 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 WELLES

Artist Director Discover Success Talent World
Now I’m an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.
ORSON WELLES

Death Myself Replacement Time Tree
I’ve never understood the cult of Hitchcock. Particularly the late American movies. Egotism and laziness. And they’re all lit like television shows.
ORSON WELLES

Ego Movie Myself Understand
I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don’t think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money.
ORSON WELLES

Money Myself Remember Thinking Work
An artist is always out of step with the time. He has to be.
ORSON WELLES

Artist Himself Time
What’s happening now is what happened before, and often what’s going to happen again sometime or other.
ORSON WELLES

History Philosophy Science Time

I’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.

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I’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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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