“I think there should be collaboration, but under my thumb.”
Source: Kazan on Kazan
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Famous Elia Kazan Quotes
“I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.”
Source: Elia Kazan: A Life
“The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.”
“The makers of entertainment must try, in our field, to be honest and grown-up.”
Source: Elia Kazan: A Life
“I was the true future. I understood Communism better than they did.”
“You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.”
Source: Kazan: the master director discusses his films : interviews with Elia Kazan
“I was the hero of the young insurgent working class art movement.”
“I was able to capture on film things the actors didn't even know they were doing.”
“Take it from a director: if you get an actor that Sandy Meisner has trained, you've been blessed.”
“If you're going to play a cowboy, show up with the horse at the audition”
“Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.”
“The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.”
Source: Kazan on Kazan
“The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.”
Source: Elia Kazan: Interviews
“Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.”
Source: Kazan on Directing
“I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.”
Source: Elia Kazan: A Life
“I was not what you'd call a first-class actor, but I did all right.”
“I was very intense. I think it's a privilege to be an actor.”
“I'm going to make a film where not one word is really important. I'm going to make it all action.”
“The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.”
Source: The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan
“You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.”
Source: Kazan: the master director discusses his films : interviews with Elia Kazan
“You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.”