You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.
Elia KazanRead
I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.
Interpretation
The quote expresses commitment to a creative endeavor and its deep personal significance.
Elia Kazan highlights the profound connection between his identity and his work with the Group Theatre. He suggests that through his artistic contributions, he is not only expressing himself but also constructing his own identity and legacy within the community of artists, indicating that one's creative path can serve as a foundation for personal fulfillment and self-realization.
In practice
In a speech about dedication to the arts at a community event.
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.
Composers and musicians have always starved and, as this is a sentimental country, we think the tradition should be continued.
The ostensible subject of my photographs may be motion, but the subtext is time. A dancer's movements illustrate the passage of time, giving it a substance, materiality, and space. In my photographs, time is stopped, a split second becomes an eternity, and an ephemeral moment is solid as sculpture.
The words that come direct from the people are the greatest.If you substitute one out of your own vocabulary, it disappears before your eyes.
Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about - something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.
I just wanted a song to sing, and there came a point where I couldn't sing anything...nobo dy else was writing what I wanted to sing. I couldn't find it anywhere. If I could I probably would never have started writing.
Every one of my books had killed me a little more.
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