Elia Kazan Acting Quotations

Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.

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

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

I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?