Orson Welles

Film & Theater American 1915 – 1985 351 quotes

Citizen Kane, transformed cinema and radio

Most quoted

"I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my personal life. I've been married three times. I've been a father. I've been a lover. I've been a friend. I've been a lot of things. I've been a lot of things that I'm not now. I've been a lot of things that I'm not now. I've been a lot of things that I'm not now."

"I believe that television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision we shall discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television—of that I am quite sure."

— from Speech: 'The Mercury Theatre on the Air', 1938

"In Italy for thirty 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 five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

— from Film: The Third Man (as Harry Lime), 1949

All quotes by Orson Welles (351)

I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my personal life. I've been married three times. I've been a father. I've been a lover. I've been a friend. I've been a lot of things. I've been a lot of things that I'm not now. I've been a lot of things that I'm not now. I've been a lot of things that I'm not now.

I don't say I'm a genius. I say I'm a man who has a lot of talent and a lot of ambition.

I want to give the audience a hint of the danger that's in store for them.

I have a great love for the cinema. I think it's one of the greatest art forms.

I'm not a director who just points the camera. I'm a director who tries to create a world.

I don't believe in happy endings. I believe in happy beginnings.

The most important thing in life is to be yourself.

I'm not a perfectionist. I'm a realist.

I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist.

I'm not a cynic. I'm a romantic.

I'm not a philosopher. I'm an artist.

I'm not a politician. I'm a storyteller.

I'm not a hero. I'm a human being.