Anybody who speaks quietly and shrivels up in company is unbelievably arrogant.
Human nature is eternal; therefore one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end.
Only very intelligent people don’t wish they were in politics, and I’m dumb enough to want to be in there.
Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing.
In common with all Protestant or Jewish cultures, America was developed on the idea that your word is your bond. Otherwise, the frontier could never have been opened, ’cause it was lawless. A man’s word had to mean something.
Now I’m an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.
I’m not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I’m no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom.
I prefer the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.
There’s no biography so interesting as the one in which the biographer is present.
I’m a provincial. I live very much like a hermit: reading, listening to music, working in the cutting room, writing, commercial work – which doesn’t take up that much time.
The essential is to excite the spectators. If that means playing Hamlet on a flying trapeze or in an aquarium, you do it.
Criminals are never very amusing. It’s because they’re failures. Those who make real money aren’t counted as criminals. This is a class distinction, not an ethical problem.
I have no great message to the world.
I have made an art form of the interview. The French are the best interviewers, despite their addiction to the triad, like all Cartesians.
I am essentially a hack, a commercial person. If I had a hobby, I would immediately make money on it or abandon it.
There were centuries when civilization had no theater.
Movie directing is a perfect refuge for the mediocre.
Look at the real prodigies, and I look like nothing compared to them.
One shouldn’t ever be conscious of the author as lecturer. When social or moral points are too heavily stressed, I always get uncomfortable.
People are losing the capacity to listen to words or follow ideas.