Quotes By Orson Welles

Movie directing is a perfect refuge for the mediocre.

Now I'm an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.

Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.

The best thing commercially, which is the worst artistically, by and large, is the most successful.

I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theatre, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai.

The essential is to excite the spectators. If that means playing Hamlet on a flying trapeze or in an aquarium, you do it.

I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money.

The laws and the stage, both are a form of exhibitionism.

Criminals are never very amusing. It's because they're failures. Those who make real money aren't counted as criminals. This is a class distinction, not an ethical problem.

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.

At twenty-one, so many things appear solid, permanent, untenable.

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

I have a great love and respect for religion, great love and respect for atheism. What I hate is agnosticism, people who do not choose.

Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool her husband, I figure she'll fool me.

I've always found it very sanitary to be broke.

I don't pray because I don't want to bore God.

Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in senate.