Elia Kazan Quotes

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Elia Kazan

Profession : Director

Birth : September 7, 1909

I value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.

Elia Kazan

I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.

Elia Kazan

I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.

Elia Kazan

The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.

Elia Kazan

I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.

Elia Kazan

I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.

Elia Kazan

I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.

Elia Kazan

I was the hero of the young insurgent working class art movement.

Elia Kazan

I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.

Elia Kazan

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

Elia Kazan

I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.

Elia Kazan

I was always a self-conscious person.

Elia Kazan

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.

Elia Kazan

I was not what you'd call a first-class actor, but I did all right.

Elia Kazan

I was very intense. I think it's a privilege to be an actor.

Elia Kazan

You can't just sit there and do the lines. You have to do something revealing or unusual.

Elia Kazan

You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.

Elia Kazan

I was even superior to the Communists and when they didn't go along with me, I quit them.

Elia Kazan

I was the true future. I understood Communism better than they did.

Elia Kazan

For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

Elia Kazan