Orson Welles
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'm not a dream. I'm a reality.
I'm not a hope. I'm a fear.
I'm not a love. I'm a hate.
I'm not a joy. I'm a sorrow.
I'm not a peace. I'm a war.
I'm not a good. I'm an evil.
I'm not a truth. I'm a lie.
I'm not a friend. I'm an enemy.
I'm not a winner. I'm a loser.
I'm not a success. I'm a failure.
If there hadn't been a war, I would have been a magician.
I don't say I'm a genius. I say I'm a director.
The most important thing in life is to know how to give out the love.
I want to give the audience a hint of the truth. They can make up their own minds.
The camera is a great deal more than a recording machine. It is an instrument that can be used to create art.
I have a great love for the theater, but I also have a great love for the cinema.
The artist is a person who has a special way of looking at the world.
I believe that the artist has a responsibility to society.
The only way to do good work is to love what you do.
I am not a prophet. I am a filmmaker.
Contemporaries of Orson Welles
Other Film & Theaters born within 50 years of Orson Welles (1915–1985).