Top 62 Orson Welles Quotes (FILMMAKING)

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Top 12 Most Famous Orson Welles Quotes (BEST)

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
Orson Welles

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. — 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.

Create your own visual style. Let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.

Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature. — Race hate isn’t human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human **nature**.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.

“Everything about me is a contradiction, and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There’s a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don’t reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.”
Orson Welles

If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends. — If there hadn’t been women we’d still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story. — If you want a **happy** ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.

I started at the top and worked my way down.

Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest.

There are three intolerable things in life – cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women. — There are three intolerable things in **life** – cold **coffee**, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.

14 Inspirational Orson Welles Quotes About Life

“Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash – the triumphs, the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life: we’re going to die. ‘Be of good heart,’ cry the dead artists out of the living past. ‘Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing.’ Maybe a man’s name doesn’t matter all that much.”
Orson Welles

Don’t give them what you think they want. Give them what they never thought was possible.

When people accept breaking the law as normal, something happens to the whole society.

I prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out.

People are losing the capacity to listen to words or follow ideas.

A man is not from where he is born, but where he chooses to die.

Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it Go on singing. — Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing.

The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age.

I have always been more interested in experiment, than in accomplishment. — I have always been more interested in experiment, than in **accomplishment**.

Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad except that you never know when luxury is going to stand up. — Living in the lap of luxury isn’t bad except that you never know when **luxury** is going to stand up.

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

You're beautiful. Yes you are, you're very very beautiful. Extremely beautiful. — You’re beautiful. Yes you are, you’re very very beautiful. Extremely beautiful.

I'm not basically a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy. — I’m not basically a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy.

6 Orson Welles Quotes On Cinemas

“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.”
Orson Welles

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. — A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a **poet**.

Each multiplex has screens allocated to each studio. The screens need filling. Studios have to create product to fill their screen, and the amount of good product is limited.

The cinema has no boundary; it is a ribbon of dream. — The cinema has no boundary; it is a ribbon of **dream**.

'The Godfather' was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed. — ‘The Godfather’ was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed.

The classy gangster is a Hollywood invention.

11 Orson Welles Quotes On Artists and Filmmakers

“Every man who is any kind of artist has a great deal of female in him. I act and give of myself as a man, but I register and receive with the soul of a woman. The only really good artists are feminine. I can’t admit the existence of an artist whose dominant personality is masculine.”
Orson Welles

The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.

A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong. — A good artist should be isolated. If he isn’t isolated, something is wrong.

A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.

Every true artist must, in his own way, be a magician, a charlatan.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time. — I **passionately** hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his **time**.

If everyone worked with wide-angle lenses, I'd shoot all my films in 75mm, because I believe very strongly in the possibilities of the 75mm. — If everyone worked with wide-angle lenses, I’d shoot all my films in 75mm, because I believe very strongly in the possibilities of the 75mm.

Film is like a colony and there are very few colonists.

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

The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.

In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God. — In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and **praying** to God.

19 Orson Welles Quotes To Ponder

“My theory is that everything went to hell with Prohibition, because it was a law nobody could obey. So the whole concept of the rule of law was corrupted at that moment. Then came Vietnam, and marijuana, which clearly shouldn’t be illegal, but is. If you go to jail for ten years in Texas when you light up a joint, who are you? You’re a lawbreaker. It’s just like Prohibition was. When people accept breaking the law as normal, something happens to the whole society, you see?”
Orson Welles

Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck. — Nobody gets **justice**. People only get good **luck** or bad luck.

Future shock is a sickness which comes from too much change in too short a time. It's the feeling that nothing is permanent anymore. — **Future** shock is a sickness which comes from too much **change** in too short a time. It’s the feeling that nothing is permanent anymore.

I can think of nothing that an audience won't understand. The only problem is to interest them; once they are interested, they understand anything in the world. — I can think of nothing that an audience won’t understand. The only problem is to interest them; once they are interested, they understand anything in the world.

Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. — Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.

I have a great love and respect for religion, great love and respect for atheism. What I hate is agnosticism, people who do not choose. — I have a great love and **respect** for religion, great love and respect for atheism. What I hate is agnosticism, people who do not choose.

“Good evening, ladies and gentleman. My name is Orson Welles. I am an actor. I am a writer. I am a producer. I am a director. I am a magician. I appear onstage and on the radio. Why are there so many of me and so few of you?”
Orson Welles

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

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

“I don’t want to forgive myself. That’s why I hate psychoanalysis I think if you’re guilty of something you should live with it. Get rid of it – how can you get rid of a real guilt? I think people should live with it, face up to it.”
Orson Welles