Orson Welles

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.”

“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.”

“I don't pray really, because I don't want to bore God.”

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

“A toast, Jedediah, to love on my terms. Those are the only terms anybody ever knows - his own.”

“In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God.”

“The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.”

“I am essentially a hack, a commercial person. If I had a hobby, I would immediately make money on it or abandon it.”

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

“I have always been more interested in experiment, than in accomplishment.”

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.”

“Good evening, ladies and gentleman. My name is Orson Welles. I am an actor. I am a writer. I am a producer. I am a director. I am a magician. I appear onstage and on the radio. Why are there...”

“I have made an art form of the interview. The French are the best interviewers, despite their addiction to the triad, like all Cartesians.”

“As a producer, sitting on the other side of the desk, I have never once had an agent go out on a limb for his client and fight for him. I've never heard one say, 'No, just a minute! This is...”

“Everything bad that has ever happened to me has been caused by agents or lawyers.”

“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.”

“I hate Woody Allen physically, I dislike that kind of man.”

“Each multiplex has screens allocated to each studio. The screens need filling. Studios have to create product to fill their screen, and the amount of good product is limited.”

“I've never understood the cult of Hitchcock. Particularly the late American movies... Egotism and laziness. And they're all lit like television shows.”

“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.”