Elia Kazan quotes - page 2

Elia Kazan was an influential American director, producer, and writer of Greek descent, renowned for his work in theater and film. Known for directing classics like "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront", his innovative approaches changed American cinema and theater. He was also a controversial figure due to his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Here are 72 of his quotes:

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.

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.

Elia Kazan

I may be getting old, but not foolish.

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

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.

Elia Kazan

I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

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.

Elia Kazan

I owe Bankhead a gift; she made a director out of me.

Elia Kazan

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

Elia Kazan

I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.

Elia Kazan

Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.

Elia Kazan