Elia Kazan

The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.

— Elia Kazan

I didn't have the problem of finding myself at 45 on the wrong course - I always wanted to be a film director.

— Elia Kazan

Never underestimate the narcissism of a writer.

— Elia Kazan

What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.

— Elia Kazan

You can't just sit there and do the lines. You have to do something revealing or unusual.

— Elia Kazan

I'm small, but I'm neither compliant nor agreeable.

— Elia Kazan

If you're going to play a cowboy, show up with the horse at the audition

— Elia Kazan

I value peace, too, when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.

— Elia Kazan

You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.

— Elia Kazan

There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking…

— Elia Kazan

The makers of entertainment must try, in our field, to be honest and grown-up.

— Elia Kazan

I'm very pro-America, but I feel it necessary to keep in touch with Europe to maintain a perspective.

— Elia Kazan

It's difficult, if not impossible, to get away with anything false before the camera. That instrument penetrates the husk of the actor;…

— Elia Kazan

For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

— Elia Kazan

You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.

— Elia Kazan

Look for the contradictions in every character, especially in your heroes and villains. No one should be what they first seem to…

— Elia Kazan

People made suggestions, but, hell, I don't actually listen to anybody, I just go my own way.

— Elia Kazan

I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.

— Elia Kazan

Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.

— Elia Kazan

I was both very successful and very left; the living demonstration of how you could be on the left and still be…

— Elia Kazan

I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.

— Elia Kazan

I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.

— Elia Kazan

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.

— Elia Kazan

With kids you can take a chance but casting a guy at 45 is different. You don't discover somebody that age. If…

— Elia Kazan

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty…

— Elia Kazan