- Nothing has ever been invented that is more cumbersome to make than the motion picture.
- Shadow is mystery and light is clarity. Shadow conceals--light reveals. To know what to reveal and what to conceal and in what degrees to do this is all there is to art.
- [on the director's role] . . . the determining influence, and the only influence, despotically exercised or not, which accounts for the worth of what is seen on the screen.
- The finished product is not finished when the actor is. The work is completed by a pair of shears.
- The only way to succeed is to make people hate you. That way they remember you.
- I care nothing about the story, only how it is photographed and presented.
- [on Gary Cooper] One of the nicest human beings I have ever met.
- [on Charles Laughton] I had great difficulty managing Laughton; so did Alexander Korda.
- I am very careful about suggesting some ways of making mankind better. I have no great affection for the reformer.
- There are no bad actors. There are only bad directors.
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