A biography for Elia Kazanhasn’t been written yet.
“I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.”
“I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.”
“I was not what you'd call a first-class actor, but I did all right.”
“I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.”
“The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.”
“You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.”
“I didn't have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I'm glad it does.”
“I don't remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.”
“The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.”
“I owe Bankhead a gift; she made a director out of me.”
“There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.”
“Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.”
“Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.”
“I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.”
“I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.”
“I think there should be collaboration, but under my thumb.”
“Our relationship was cursed by the fact that we agreed on everything.”
“I value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.”
“I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.”
“Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?”