Elia Kazan

You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

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.

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

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.

I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.

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.

Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.

I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.

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 owe Bankhead a gift; she made a director out of me.

Acting, I found, was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.

I'm going to make a film where not one word is really important. I'm going to make it all action.

I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.

The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.

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 was able to capture on film things the actors didn't even know they were doing.

Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.

You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.

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.