Orson Welles

“Only very intelligent people don't wish they were in politics, and I'm dumb enough to want to be in there.”

“What's happening now is what happened before, and often what's going to happen again sometime or other”

“I prefer the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.”

“I feel I have to protect myself against things. So I'm pretty careful to lose most of them.”

“When you are down and out something always turns up - and it is usually the noses of your friends.”

“The laws and the stage, both are a form of exhibitionism.”

“Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him.”

“My kind of director is an actor-director who writes.”

“Everybody denies I am a genius - but nobody ever called me one!”

“I know people who have a much better recollection of their childhood than I do. They remember very well when they were a year and a half and two years old. I've only one or two daguerreotypes that come to mind.”

“I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money.”

“'The Godfather' was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed.”

“When television came along, I'd already done more than 10 years of radio work and I thought everyone would want me. I sat around waiting for the phone to ring - and it didn't.”

“Anybody who speaks quietly and shrivels up in company is unbelievably arrogant.”

“I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.”

“I've always found it very sanitary to be broke.”

“We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.”

“If I ever own a restaurant, I will never allow the waiters to ask if the diners like their dishes. Particularly when they're talking.”

“I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theatre, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai.”

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.”