Orson Welles movie quotes

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
Orson Welles - Harry Lime

“- Kane: If I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
- Walter Parks Thatcher: Don't you think you are?
- Kane: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.”
Orson Welles - Kane
George Coulouris - Walter Parks Thatcher

“There's only one person who's going to decide what I'm going to do and that's me.”
Orson Welles - Kane

“- Pete Menzies: Convictions. Sure. How many did you frame?
- Quinlan: Nobody.
- Pete Menzies: Come on, Hank. How many did you frame?
- Quinlan: I told you. Nobody. Nobody that wasn't guilty. Guilty. Guilty.”
Joseph Calleia - Police Sergeant Pete Menzies
Orson Welles - Police Captain Hank Quinlan

“- Quinlan: Come on, read my future for me.
- Tanya: You haven't got any.
- Quinlan: Hmm? What do you mean?
- Tanya: Your future's all used up.”
Orson Welles - Police Captain Hank Quinlan
Marlene Dietrich - Tanya

“- Pete Menzies: You're a killer.
- Hank Quinlan: Partly. I'm a cop.
- Pete Menzies: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Drunk and crazy as you must have been when you strangled him. I guess you were somehow thinking of your wife, the way she was strangled.
- Hank Quinlan: I'm always thinking of her, drunk or sober. What else is there to think about, except my...” (continue)(continue reading)
Joseph Calleia - Police Sergeant Pete Menzies
Orson Welles - Police Captain Hank Quinlan

“- Martins: Have you ever seen any of your victims?
- Harry Lime: You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Victims? Don't be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really,...” (continue)(continue reading)
Joseph Cotten - Holly Martins
Orson Welles - Harry Lime

“- Harry Lime: Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat, I talk about the suckers and the mugs - it's the same thing. They have their five-year plans, so have I.
- Martins: You used to believe in God.
- Harry Lime: Oh, I still do believe in God, old man. I believe...” (continue)(continue reading)
Orson Welles - Harry Lime
Joseph Cotten - Holly Martins

“- Michael O'Hara: Why don't you do it yourself?
- George Grisby: Commit suicide? Me? Don't be silly. Suicide is against the law. We're not going to break the law. This is going to be murder and it's going to be legal.”

Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara
Glenn Anders - George Grisby

“- Mrs. Elsa 'Rosalie' Bannister: I was taught to think about love in Chinese.
- Michael O'Hara: The way a Frenchman thinks about laughter in French?
- Mrs. Elsa 'Rosalie' Bannister: The Chinese say, it is difficult for love to last long; therefore, one who loves passionately is cured of love - in the end.
- Michael O'Hara: Well, that's a hard...” (continue)(continue reading)
Rita Hayworth - Elsa Bannister
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“New York is not as big a city as it pretends to be.”
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“- George Grisby: Beautiful, isn't it.
- Michael O'Hara: The beach, you mean, or the tourists?
- George Grisby: Everything!
- Michael O'Hara: There's a fair face to the land; but, you can't hide the hunger and guilt. It's a bright, guilty world.”
Glenn Anders - George Grisby
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“The only way to stay out of trouble is to grow old, so I guess I'll concentrate on that.”
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“Everybody is somebody's fool.”
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool a husband, I figure, she'll fool me.”
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“- George Grisby: What's your guess, Michael? You think the world's coming to an end?
- Michael O'Hara: Well, there was a start to the world sometime; so, I guess there'll be a stop.
- George Grisby: It's coming, you know. Oh, yeah. It's got to come. First the big cities. Then, maybe even this. It's just got to come.
- Michael O'Hara: I'd...” (continue)(continue reading)
Glenn Anders - George Grisby
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“Maybe I'll live so long that I'll forget her. Maybe I'll die trying.”
Orson Welles - Michael O'Hara

“And this is what the legend says - a flower, known nowhere else, grows from out of the desperate crags where Pearl vanished. Pearl - who was herself a wild flower sprung from the hard clay, quick to blossom and early to die.”
Orson Welles - Narrator

“I don't know how to run a newspaper, Mr. Thatcher; I just try everything I can think of.”

Orson Welles - Kane

“- Susan Alexander Kane: I don't know many people.
- Kane: I know too many people. I guess we're both lonely.”
Dorothy Comingore - Susan Alexander Kane
Orson Welles - Kane

“- Kane: It's obvious the people prefer Jim Gettys to me.
- Jedediah Leland: You talk about the people as though you owned them, as though they belong to you. As long as I can remember, you've talked about giving the people their rights, as if you can make them a present of liberty, as a reward for services rendered.”
Orson Welles - Kane
Joseph Cotten - Jedediah Leland

“Mr. Thatcher is one of our most devoted readers, Mr. Bernstein. He knows what's wrong with every issue since I've taken charge.”

Orson Welles - Kane

“Don't worry about me, Gettys! Don't worry about me! I'm Charles Foster Kane! I'm no cheap, crooked politician, trying to save himself from the consequences of his crimes!”

Orson Welles - Kane

“If I don't look after the interests of the underprivileged, maybe somebody else will, maybe somebody without any money or property... and that would be too bad!”
Orson Welles - Kane

“I entered this campaign with one purpose only, to point out and make public the dishonesty, the downright villainy of Boss Jim W. Gettys' political machine, now in complete control of the government of this state.”
Orson Welles - Kane