Quotes from Elia Kazan

Our relationship was cursed by the fact that we agreed on everything.

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

I may be getting old, but not foolish.

I didn't have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I'm glad it does.

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.

I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.

I left the theater; I literally left to begin a new life.

I won't go back to the theater. I like some of the things they're doing but it's different now, not something I could do. I'll go on making films the rest of my life.

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.

I think there should be collaboration, but under my thumb.

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

Hey, you must be doin' good, 'cause I never hear from you.

Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.

The makers of entertainment must try, in our field, to be honest and grown-up.

I question the value of stars. I think they're overrated. They get too much money, too much praise.

I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.

With kids you can take a chance but casting a guy at 45 is different. You don't discover somebody that age. If an actor hasn't made it by that time he probably has no talent.

The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.

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.

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

For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.

I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.

I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.