John Huston

Born in Nevada, Missouri, USA
Died in Middletown, Rhode Island, USA

“Bob [Mitchum] is one of the very great actors.  His resources have never been fully tapped.  He could play King Lear.”

“May I say, as long as actors are going into politics, I wish for Christ’s sake that Sean Connery would become King of Scotland.”

“[Marilyn Monroe:] Oh, it was a tragic thing to witness, particularly as there was something so appealing about her.  What interests me now is the fact that interest in her endures.  They’re asking the same questions that they were 15 years ago.  Simple - she’s still alive.”

“[Marlon Brando:] Did you see Julius Caesar?  Christ, I’ll never forget that.  It was like a furnace door opening - the heat came off the screen.  I don’t know any other actor who could do that.”

“After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.”

“Censorship hurts pictures, it damages them.  The only form of censorship that’s at all significant is what the French do - burn the theatre down.”

“The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world.  A picture is made.  You put a frame around it and move on.  And one day you die.  That is all there is to it.”

“Concentrate on the story, leave the details to others - and sit whenever you can.”

“I direct as little as possible.  I relieve myself of the ardours of direction, simply by casting it right.”

“The actors were all in their places - looking at me expectantly.  I’d no idea what was required.  Finally, my assistant, the splendid Jack Sullivan, whispered: ‘Say: Action!’ I did so and The Maltese Falcon was underway.”

“I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk.”

“Hollywood has always been a cage - a cage to catch our dreams.”

“[On Rambo:] I wouldn’t have made the picture - is it Rainbow?  Rambo?  - whatever its name is.  I wouldn’t have made it even if I’d known it was going to make so many millions of dollars.”

“Someone who sees things in a way that illuminates them and enables you to see things in a different way.  One knows men of genius only through their work.”

“Orson is not a man who could bow down to idiots.  And Hollywood is full of them.  Orson has a big ego - but he’s completely logical.  He’s a joy!  An amateur - I mean that in the very best sense of the word.  He loves pictures and plays and all things theatrical.”

“Jesus Christ, you’d think there had never been any sex until recent years.”

“I don’t try to guess what a million people will like.  It’s hard enough to know what I like.”

“I’ve met those who I thought were - perhaps - connected with the Mafia, and they weren’t all that dreadful.”

“It’s not color, it’s like pouring 40 tablespoons of sugar water over a roast.”

“Jack Nicholson and my daughter have lived together for twelve years.  That’s longer than any of my marriages lasted.”

“Tales of my toughness are exaggerated.  I never killed an actor.  Nearly lost a few.”

“Threatened with boredom, I’ll run like a hare.”

“What to do when inspiration doesn’t come; be careful not to spook, get the wind up, force things into position.  You must wait around until the idea comes.”

“You walk through a series of arches, so to speak, and then, presently, at the end of a corridor, a door opens and you see backward through time, and you feel the flow of time, and realize you are only part of a great nameless procession.”