Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.
Elia Kazan
Miller didn't write Death of a Salesman. He released it. It was there inside him, waiting to be turned loose. That's the measure of its merit.
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.
Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.
The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.
I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I'm building something for myself. What I build, I am.
For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.
A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.
I was the true future. I understood Communism better than they did.
I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.
The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.
I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.
I want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity.
A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people.
I'm going to make a film where not one word is really important. I'm going to make it all action.
I was always a self-conscious person.
Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
Hey, you must be doin' good, 'cause I never hear from you.
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 was even superior to the Communists and when they didn't go along with me, I quit them.
I like directors who come on the set and create something that's a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.
I'm small, but I'm neither compliant nor agreeable.
Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.
The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.
Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.
You've got to keep fighting - you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.
I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.
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 was very intense. I think it's a privilege to be an actor.
The physical life of the scene is determined by whether the set squeezes people together or whether the set has an escape place in it.
I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.
I think there should be collaboration, but under my thumb.
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.
The world was like a huge red carpet out ahead of me to be walked on. And it stretched on and on, no end.
The first thing you should do with an actor is not sign a contract with him. Take him to dinner. And take him for a walk afterwards.
You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.
I was the hero of the young insurgent working class art movement.
The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.
I was both very successful and very left; the living demonstration of how you could be on the left and still be in the gossip columns and be envied for the money you made.
I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.
The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.
I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.
I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists' advertising or recruiting technique.
To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but is bitter and unforgettable.
I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.
I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.
I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.
I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.
I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.
