QuoteProject
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
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Uncertainty is an inherent part of performance, yet clarity can emerge in the moment of creation.

Orson Welles reflects on the unpredictable nature of performance and filmmaking, emphasizing that while uncertainty permeates every aspect—from the script to the actors—the most crucial decisions often emerge spontaneously. This insight highlights the artistic process as one that embraces chaos while recognizing the significance of instinctive choices in capturing the essence of a performance.

Themes

PerformanceUncertaintyArtInstinctCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

A theater director might quote this to inspire their cast during a rehearsal.

More from Orson Welles

Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
Orson WellesRead
When people accept breaking the law as normal, something happens to the whole society.
Orson WellesRead
A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.
Orson WellesRead
I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.
Orson WellesRead
Old age is the only disease you dont want to be cured of.
Orson WellesRead
Movie directing is a perfect refuge for the mediocre.
Orson WellesRead

Similar quotes

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.
Aaron CoplandRead
I believe that a good children's book should appeal to all people who have not completely lost their original joy and wonder in life. The fact is that I don't make books for children at all. I make them for that part of us, of myself and of my friends, which has never changed, which is still a child.
Leo LionniRead
Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.
Virginia WoolfRead
I like the feeling of words doing as they want to do and as they have to do.
Gertrude SteinRead
Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward; it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
Music is, for me, like a beautiful mosaic which God has put together. He takes all the pieces in his hand, throws them into the world, and we have to recreate the picture from the pieces.
Jean SibeliusRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Orson Welles | QuoteProject