Orson Welles (1915-1985)

Quotes

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

• Gluttony is not a secret vice.

• 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.

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

• Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

• There are three intolerable things in life - cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.

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

• Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.

• I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.

• A poet needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a filmmaker an army.

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

• You know what the fellow said: In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love--they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.

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