Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.

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

Look for the contradictions in every character, especially in your heroes and villains. No one should be what they first seem to be. Surprise the audience.

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

I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.

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

I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.