The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.

It's difficult, if not impossible, to get away with anything false before the camera. That instrument penetrates the husk of the actor; it reveals what's truly happening - if anything, if nothing. A close-up demands absolute truth. It's a severe and awesome truth

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.

A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people.

There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.

I don't remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.

I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.