Quotessence
Home / Authors / Orson Welles
Orson Welles

Orson Welles Quotes

Actor

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleThinkingFilmMenWantWorldDirectorsTwoWayHateKnowsActorsArtistShouldYearsHollywoodI HateKindWriting

Famous Orson Welles Quotes

“No matter what the Bible says—and I'm not a fundamentalist—I just don't think that men were the first. I don't think that Eve was made out of Adam's rib. I think the first sex, biologically, is the female sex, and there are many creatures in our world who are female and only become male as long as is necessary and then revert to the original and superior condition. I think we're a kind of decoration. We're sort of a maddening luxury. The basic and essential human is the woman, and all that we're doing is trying to brighten up the place. That's why all the birds who belong to our sex have prettier feathers—because we have got to try and justify our existence. Look how little we do to keep the race going.”

MenWomenFemaleMalesWomanMaleFemalesThe Sexes
Author:Orson Welles
Create image

“Take myself as a good-will ambassador. I'm great - I'm taking myself as a character - for the intellectuals and the man on the street. I'm great where Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. leaves off. I'm not so good with high society, in either North or South America, because I'm highly unconventional. Perhaps I bewilder people by being at once the esthete, the intellectual and the vulgarian.”

PeopleMenCharacterAmericaStreetsHe ManIntellectualSouthGood WillAmbassadorsSouth AmericaUnconventional
Author:Orson Welles
Create image

“Today I believe that man cannot escape his destiny to create whatever it is we make - jazz, a wooden spoon, or graffiti on the wall. All of these are expressions of man's creativity, proof that man has not yet been destroyed by technology. But are we making things for the people of our epoch or repeating what has been done before? And finally, is the question itself important? We must ask ourselves that. The most important thing is always to doubt the importance of the question.”

PeopleMenBelieveHas BeensImportantDoneTodayAsksI BelieveCreativityDestinyTechnologyDoubtExpressionWallImportanceImportant ThingsJazzProofDestroyedSpoonsEpochGraffitiWooden Spoons
Author:Orson Welles
Create image

“Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash - the triumphs, the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life: we're going to die. "Be of good heart," cry the dead artists out of the living past. "Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing." Maybe a man's name doesn't matter all that much.”

MenHeartTwoWarMatterFactsPastArtistSongDiesFallNamesCryGoes OnSingingStonesUltimateUniversalPaintDecadesTreasureTriumphFakePrintFraudAshesFacts Of LifeMillenniumGood Heart
Author:Orson Welles
Create image