Quotes

I let the audience use their imaginations. Can I help it if they misconstrue my suggestions?

You could name the great stars of the silent screen who were finished; the great directors gone; the great title writers who were washed up. But remember this, as long as you live: the producers didn't lose a man. They all made the switch. That's where the great talent is.

I've been to Paris, France, and I've been to Paris, Paramount. Paris Paramount is better.

Nobody should try to play comedy unless they have a circus going on inside.

I sometimes make pictures which are not up to my standard, but then it can only be said of a mediocrity that all his work is up to his standard.

In Hollywood we acquire the finest novels in order to smell the leather bindings.

There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one.

[on Greta Garbo] The most uninhibited person I have ever worked with.

[on Gary Cooper] Gary Cooper is like wax you could mold in front of a camera.

[on his personal work ethic] I think I am possessed only of a fascination for the work I have chosen to do. I am so engrossed by the production of a film that I literally think of nothing else.