George Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer and producer who is remembered for his innovative work in radio, theatre and film. He is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Profoundly inspirational Orson Welles quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.

If you’re searching for amazing quotes by famous actors that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of quotes from Liam Neeson, powerful Katharine Hepburn quotes and famous Robert John Downey Jr. quotes.

Famous Orson Welles Quotes

I started at the top and worked down

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

A bad word from a colleague can darken a whole day. We need encouragement a lot more than we admit, even to ourselves Orson Welles

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

The camera is much more than a recording apparatus, it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world Orson Welles

The first thing one must remember about film is that it is a young medium. And it is essential for every responsible artist to cultivate the ground that has been left fallow

The word genius was whispered into my ear, the first thing I ever heard, while I was still mewling in my crib. So it never occurred to me that I wasn’t until middle age Orson Welles

The cinema has no boundary; it is a ribbon of dream

I dont believe in learning from other people’s pictures. I think you should learn from your own interior vision of things and discover, as I say, Innocently, as though there had never been anybody Orson Welles

Every true artist must, in his own way, be a magician, a charlatan

I never make my mind up about anything at all, until it’s over and done with Orson Welles

I’m a provincial. I live very much like a hermit: reading, listening to music, working in the cutting room, writing, commercial work which doesn’t take up that much time

A director is someone who presides over a series of accidents Orson Welles

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

A movie in production is the greatest train set a boy could ever have Orson Welles

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

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 Orson Welles

The enemy of art is the absence of limitations

I have always been more interested in experiment, than in accomplishment Orson Welles

I liked the cinema better before I began to do it. Now I can’t stop myself from hearing the clappers at the beginning of each shot. All the magic is destroyed

Computers combine things to make new knowledge at such high speed that we cannot absorb it Orson Welles

I think it’s very harmful to see movies for movie makers because you either imitate them or worry about not imitating them and you should do movies innocently and I lost my innocence. Every time I see a picture I lose something I don’t gain I never understand what directors mean when they compliment me and say they’ve learned from my pictures because I don’t believe in learning from other people’s pictures. You should learn from your own interior vision and discover innocently as though there had never been D.W. Griffith or Sergei Eisenstein or John Ford or Jean Renoir or anybody

Ignorance sheer ignorance. There is no confidence to equal it. It’s only when you know something about a profession that you are timid or careful Orson Welles

Movie directing is the perfect refuge for the mediocre

Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest Orson Welles

I would rather be on the set than doing anything

As for my style, for my vision of the cinema, editing is not simply one aspect; it’s the aspect Orson Welles

Don’t give them what you think they want. Give them what they never thought was possible

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

I hate it when people pray on the screen. It’s not because I hate praying, but whenever I see an actor fold his hands and look up in the spotlight, I’m lost. There’s only one other thing in the movies I hate as much, and that’s sex. You just can’t get in bed or pray to God and convince me on the screen

A man is not from where he is born, but where he chooses to die Orson Welles

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

The first thing one must remember about film is that it is a young medium. And it is essential for every responsible artist to cultivate the ground that has been left fallow Orson Welles

A poet needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a director an army

I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act Orson Welles

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

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

If you’ve noticed that I don’t use long takes, it’s not because I don’t like them, but because no one gives me the necessary means to treat myself to them. It’s more economical to make one image, then this image and then that image, and try to control them later, in the editing studio

The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age Orson Welles

If everyone worked with wide angle lenses, I’d shoot all my films in 75mm, because I believe very strongly in the possibilities of the 75mm. I know that in theory the word is secondary in cinema, but the secret of my work is that everything is based on the word. I always begin with the dialogue. And I do not understand how one dares to write action before dialogue. I must begin with what the characters say I must know what they say before seeing them do what they do

People are losing the capacity to listen to words or follow ideas Orson Welles

In the film business you’re taught all the things the cameraman doesn’t want to attempt for fear he will be criticized for having failed. In this case I had a cameraman who didn’t care if he was criticized if he failed, and I didn’t know there were things you couldn’t do. So anything I could think up in my dreams, I attempted to photograph

Human nature is eternal; therefore one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end Orson Welles

Create your own visual style let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable to others

The truth about any man can only be calculated by the sum of everything that has been said about him Orson Welles

I want to give the audience a hint of a scene No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act

Don’t give them what you think they want Give them what they never thought was possible Orson Welles

The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics  the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room

When people accept breaking the law as normal, something happens to the whole society Orson Welles

I think it is always a tremendously good formula in any art form to admit the limitations of the form

Race hate isn’t human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature Orson Welles

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