Orson Welles: Trending quotes

“I'm not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I'm no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom. I mark only the happy hours, like the sundial, because otherwise I would have gone nuts. To quote from my script for The Dreamers, never expect justice in the world. That is not part of God's plan. Everybody thinks that if they don't get it, they're some kind of odd man out. And it's not true. Nobody gets justice — people get good luck or bad luck.”

“In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God.”

“I don't take art as seriously as politics.”

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.”

“I'm not basically a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy.”

“There are three intolerable things in life - cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women…”

“I don't regard my career as something so precious that it comes before my convictions.”

“My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.”

“I try to be a Christian…I don't pray really, because I don't want to bore God.”

“The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.”

“If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.”

“If you want a happy ending, it just depends on where you close the book!”

“I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.”

“I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.”

“You're beautful. Yes you are, you're very very beautiful. Extremely beautiful.”

“I dont believe in learning from other peoples pictures. I think you should learn from your own interior vision of things and discover, as I say, Innocently, as though there had never been anybody.”

“A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.”

“Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him.”

“A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong.”