I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.
I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.
The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.
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.
Our relationship was cursed by the fact that we agreed on everything.
I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.
The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.
I question the value of stars. I think they're overrated. They get too much money, too much praise.
I was the hero of the young insurgent working class art movement.
I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.
You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.
The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.
I was even superior to the Communists and when they didn't go along with me, I quit them.
I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.
I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.
Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.
Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.
I didn't have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I'm glad it does.
Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.
Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people.
A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.
I don't remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.
Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.