Orson Welles

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.

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.

I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

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

Only very intelligent people don't wish they were in politics, and I'm dumb enough to want to be in there.

Race hate isn't human nature race hate is the abandonment of human nature.

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.

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.

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.

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

A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong.

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

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

Did you ever stop to think why cops are always famous for being dumb? Simple. Because they don't have to be anything else.

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

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

If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.

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

The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.

We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.