70+ Orson Welles Quotes | Minimalist Quotes

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
The 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 WELLES

Expression Ideal Perfection Reality
Criminals 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 WELLES

Amazing Crime Failure Money Problem Reality
A good artist should be isolated. If he isn’t isolated, something is wrong.
ORSON WELLES

Artist Goodness Himself Wrong
The cinema has no boundary; it is a ribbon of dream.
ORSON WELLES

Boundary Dreams Movie Perspective
The trouble with a movie is that it’s old before it’s released. It’s no accident that it comes in a can.
ORSON WELLES

Accident Movie Old Trouble
I hate Woody Allen physically, I dislike that kind of man.
ORSON WELLES

Hate Kind Man Myself
Human nature is eternal; therefore one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end.
ORSON WELLES

End Forever Human Nature Original
Working is part of life, I don’t know how to distinguish between the two. Work is an expression of life.
ORSON WELLES

Expression Life Myself Philosophy Work
There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.
ORSON WELLES

Boredom Emotion Terrorism
Ignorance sheer ignorance. There is no confidence to equal it. It’s only when you know something about a profession that you are timid or careful.
ORSON WELLES

Care Confidence Equality Ignorance Professional Yourself
My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.
ORSON WELLES

Doctor Food Funny Myself People Stop
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

Actor Camera Decision Myself Performance Place Script World
Future shock is a sickness which comes from too much change in too short a time. It’s the feeling that nothing is permanent anymore.
ORSON WELLES

Change Feeling Future Permanent Sick Time
I’ve spent most of my mature life trying to prove that I’m not irresponsible.
ORSON WELLES

Evidence Life Maturity Myself Responsibility
The Godfather’ was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed.
ORSON WELLES

Existence Father Glory God
If I ever own a restaurant, I will never allow the waiters to ask if the diners like their dishes. Particularly when they’re talking.
ORSON WELLES

Food Myself Restaurant Talk Wait
My kind of director is an actor-director who writes.
ORSON WELLES

Director Kind Myself Writing
A director is someone who presides over a series of accidents.
ORSON WELLES

Accident Director Job Series
I’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 WELLES

Drive Fast Myself Scare
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
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
The camera is much more than a recording apparatus, it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world.
ORSON WELLES

Camera Record World
Every true artist must, in his own way, be a magician, a charlatan.
ORSON WELLES

Artist Himself Magic True
I have made an art form of the interview. The French are the best interviewers, despite their addiction to the triad, like all Cartesians.
ORSON WELLES

Art Best Interview Myself
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
Hollywood is Hollywood. There’s nothing you can say about it that isn’t true, good or bad. And if you get into it, you have no right to be bitter — you’re the one who sat down, and joined the game.
ORSON WELLES

Bad Game Goodness Hollywood Right True Yourself

Orson Welles Quotes

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