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)
The trouble with a movie is that it's always yesterday.
Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees.
My father was a druggist, but he didn't take drugs.
The cinema is an art form that everyone can understand.
Life is a memory, and your films are memories of memories.
The critic is the only man whose judgment is worthless.
We need to dream, to escape from reality.
A good film is when the price of admission, the ticket, is the only thing you pay for.
I was taught at a very early age that the possible and the impossible are very close together.
The real enemy can always be identified by the fact that he or she is telling you what to do.
Art is the ultimate expression of the human soul.
Don't be afraid to fail; be afraid not to try.
Theater is the most beautiful place in the world.
Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the sunlight.
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
Movies are fun, but they're not a cure for cancer.
The true artist will let his wife starve.
In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
I hate to be a genius. I'd rather be a good guy with a good job.
The absence of a writer is the presence of a director.
Contemporaries of Orson Welles
Other Film & Theaters born within 50 years of Orson Welles (1915–1985).