Quotes from Donald Spoto

Avoid theatrical flourishes - the phrases that sound so damned good that they stand up and beg to be recognized as "good writing," and therefore must be struck from the text.

But there is probably nothing in the world as determined as a child with a dream

From his earliest years, Alfred Hitchcock was a loner and a watcher, an observer rather than a participant. "I don't remember ever having a playmate," he recalled as an adult. At family gatherings: "I would sit quietly in a corner, saying nothing. I looked and observed a great deal. I've always been that way and still am. I was anything but expansive. I was a loner—can't even remember having had a playmate. I played by myself, inventing my own games.

Less is more" was one of Meisner's mantras. "Silence has myriad meanings. In the theater, silence is an absence of words, but never an absence of meaning." Most of all, Meisner urged his students to think of acting a role as "living truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.

When we renounce our fear of life and give up trying to have it under our control—that is, when we acknowledge our contingency and utter dependence on God—then God comes to us and turns us toward Himself.

Guilt, of course, is the predominant theme of Hitchcock's films. It derives not only from the complexities of his own inner life: guilt is also one of the great themes in all art, and especially in contemporary art and literature.

It concerns the point at which courage is the logical and sometimes the only possible outcome of integrity.

Whenever anyone uttered a word against gay men or women, Grace was outspoken. "You shouldn't criticize people who are homosexual," she told her friend Prudy Wise. "It can be very destructive, and it is so easy to become mean without realizing it.

I always tell actors not to use their face for nothing. Don't start scribbling on the paper until you have something to write.

I have turned to work again and again over the years as an antidote to the pains of life. Work is the best alleviator of sorrow I know, and once again, it is standing me in good stead. So I will work--and cry on my own time.

In addition to a pitiable cycle of search and inevitable disappointment, she sometimes chose unsuitable partners for friendship, romance, or marriage - perhaps in the unacknowledged belief that in repeating the unhappiness of the past she might, at last, reverse its effects.

I would like to be remembered as a person who accomplished something who was kind and loving. I would like to leave behind me the memory of a human being who behaved properly and tried to help others.

Va, et advienne que pourra. Go, and come what may.

she began to choose her own projects, Marilyn

She had an understanding about people, and compassion—she didn't talk about it, but you heard how she spoke and saw how she behaved.

Grace was tough and strong—mentally, emotionally and physically—and she cut through a lot of the nonsense. Hollywood was like a game for her. She was also a good businesswoman, and this allowed her to win in her struggles with MGM. She knew how to play the corporate game, and she played it so that it worked for her.

But she never distanced herself from others, and she was enormously friendly to everyone—no stuffy attitude, no star complex. As for her talents, Grace acted the way Johnny Weissmuller swam or Fred Astaire danced—she made it look easy. And she probably went through life being completely misunderstood, since she usually said exactly what she meant.

I put it to him bluntly: 'Look here, Oleg—you're a charming escort, but in my opinion you are a very poor risk for a marriage.'" And then Margaret Kelly said something that might have turned Grace's resentment into loud laughter: "Of course I never interfere, even when I do not approve.