Quotes from Elia Kazan

There is only one thing I respect in so-called Broadway actors... and that is their competitive sense.

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

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

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

I was very intense. I think it's a privilege to be an actor.

The thing about Brando was that I'd make these directions, and he'd walk away. He'd heard enough... to get the machine going.

A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people.

I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.

The physical life of the scene is determined by whether the set squeezes people together or whether the set has an escape place in it.

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.

I want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity.

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.

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

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.

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 value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.

I want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity.

I was the true future. I understood Communism better than they did.

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.

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

I was the hero of the young insurgent working class art movement.

Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.

There is only one thing I respect in so-called Broadway actors... and that is their competitive sense.

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