Quotes from John Huston

You walk through a series of arches, so to speak, and then, presently, at the end of a corridor, a door opens and you see backward through time, and you feel the flow of time, and realize you are only part of a great nameless procession.

I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk.

It's not color, it's like pouring 40 tablespoons of sugar water over a roast.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world. A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it.

For sheer strength of character, I wouldn't have dared to cross swords with Callas. I would rather have gone six rounds with Jack Dempsey.

What to do when inspiration doesn't come; be careful not to spook, get the wind up, force things into position. You must wait around until the idea comes.

Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place they're capable of anything.

Hollywood has always been a cage... a cage to catch our dreams.

Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!

I don't got to show you no stinkin' bahdges!

There's never any telling what you'll say or do next, except that it's bound to be something astonishing. By God, sir, you are a character.

To me the ideal film - which I've never succeeded in making - would be as though the reel were behind one's eyes and you were projecting it yourself, seeing what you wish to see. This has a great deal in common with thought processes ... That's why I think the camera is an eye as well as a mind. Everything we do with the camera has physiological and mental significance.

After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world.

A work of art doesn't dare you to realize it. It germinates and gestates by itself.

What you try to become is a bringer of magic, for magic and the truth are closely allied and movies are sheer magic ... when they work, it's, well, it's glorious.

Hollywood has always been a cage...a cage to catch our dreams