Quotes By Elia Kazan
I was even superior to the Communists and when they didn't go along with me, I quit them.
Elia Kazan
For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.
Elia Kazan
What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.
Elia Kazan
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.
Elia Kazan
I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.
Elia Kazan
I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.
Elia Kazan
I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.
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.
Elia Kazan
The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.
Elia Kazan
Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.
Elia Kazan
The more ambivalent you are and the more uncertain you are, then you can get something that you cannot anticipate.
Elia Kazan
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.
Elia Kazan
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.
Elia Kazan
I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.
Elia Kazan
You've got to keep fighting - you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.
Elia Kazan
The thing about Brando was that I'd make these directions, and he'd walk away. He'd heard enough... to get the machine going.
Elia Kazan
Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
Elia Kazan
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.
Elia Kazan