“Citizen Kane” quotes
(1941)
Orson Welles
directed this movie
in 1941
Title Citizen Kane
Year 1941
Director Orson Welles
Genre Drama, Mystery
Year 1941
Director Orson Welles
Genre Drama, Mystery
Plot – Charles Foster Kane's parents were of humble origins. While he was still a child, his mother inherited a large sum of money and invested it in her son's education, which took him far from her to a world that would suit his future position. Kane had been gifted with uncommon intelligence, a strong will and a volcanic temper. Once grown and devoured by an extraordinary ambition, he dives into a journalist career and soon controls thirty newspapers. He wants to enter politics and is about to be elected governor when an opponent, discrediting his private life, manages to tear apart his reputation. He divorces his wife, who dies later with their only son in a car accident. His second marriage is to an unknown singer who he had been in love with. Driven by ambition, he uses his wealth to launch her career, but he fails, even after having built a wonderful theater for her. He also builds a great castle where he collects great art treasures and here he retires to live with his wife, who cannot bear the magnificent solitude and abandons him. He dies alone, regretting the serene and innocent games of childhood poverty. But who or what is "Rosebud", which he repeatedly invokes on his deathbed?
All actors – Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, William Alland, Paul Stewart, George Coulouris, Fortunio Bonanova, Gus Schilling, Philip Van Zandt, Georgia Backus, Harry Shannon, Sonny Bupp, Buddy Swan, Orson Welles, Don Ackerman, Loretta Agar, Demetrius Alexis, Peter Allen, William Alston, Baudelio Alva, T. Lockwood Arbright, Sam Ash, Michael Audley, Walter Bacon, Harry A. Bailey, Alva Baudena, Charles Bennett, Joan Blair, Danny Borzage, Robert Brent, James Brought, Morgan Brown, Harry Burkhardt, William Calkins, Porter Chase, Gene Chervow, J.J. Clark, Dorothy Cleveland, Edmund Cobb, Eddie Coke, Nat 'King' Cole, Tom Coleman, Gene Coogan, Sally Corner, Gino Corrado, Herbert Corthell, Irene Crosby, Charles Cross, Thomas A. Curran, Louise Currie, Jack Curtis, Ed Dahlen, Ernie Daniels, Coy Danz, Margaret Davis, Tim Davis, Donna Dax, Marie Day, Petra R. de Silva, Gayle DeCamp, Frances Deets, Carl Deloro, George DeNormand, Eddie Dew, John Dilson, Robert Dudley, Lou Duello, Suzanne Dulier, Art Dupuis, Pauline Easterday, Al Eben, Johnny Eckert, Jack Egan, Carl Ekberg, Dick Elmore, Edith Evanson, Carl Faulkner, Juanita Fields, Jack Floyd, Ray Flynn, Monty Ford, Jean Forward, Olin Francis, Louise Franklin, Al Frazier, Guy Gada, Gloria Gale, Captain Garcia, Jack Gargan, Bud Geary, Rudolph Germaine, Bob Gladman, Renee Godfrey, Jerry Gordon, Peter Gowland, Jimmy Grant, Jesse Graves, Ernest Grooney, Jack Gwynne, Robert Haines, Frank Haney, Harry Harris, Sam Harris, Lew Harvey, Henry Hebert, Edward L. Hemmer, Cliff Herd, Bryan 'Slim' Hightower, Harlan Hoagland, John Huettner, Mitchell Ingraham, Jack Itay, Jack Jahries, Walter James, George W. Jimenez, Clayton Jones, Edna Mae Jones, Harry Jones, Alexander Julian, Bill Kane, Arthur Kay, Ivy Keene, E. Kerry, Milton Kibbee, Laura Knight, Alan Ladd, Mike Lally, Carmen Laroux, Perc Launders, Walter Lawrence, Bob Lawson, Bert LeBaron, David Ledner, Adam Linke, J.D. Lockhart, Mary Lorraine, Ellen Lowe, Ludwig Lowry, Buck Mack, James T. Mack, Evelyn Mackert, Teddy Mangean, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jack Manolas, Joe Manz, Loretta Marsh, Mickey Martin, Clyde McAtee, Major McBride, Frank McClure, Lee McCluskey, John McCormack, Charles Meakin, Hercules Mendez, Jim Merritt, Buddy Messinger, E.G. Miller, Irving Mitchell, Bert Moorhouse, Philip Morris, Jack Morton, Louis Natheaux, Frances E. Neal, Lillian Nicholson, Leda Nicova, George Noisom, Joseph North, John Northpole, Field Norton, William H. O'Brien, Arthur O'Connell, Frank O'Connor, Paddy O'Flynn, Lillian O'Malley, Edward Peil Jr., Gerald Pierce, Thomas Pogue, Russ Powell, J.R. Ralston, Terrance Ray, Jack Raymond, William Reed, Guy Repp, Jolane Reynolds, Sam Rice, Verne Richards, Suzanne Ridgeway, Cyril Ring, Myrtle Rishell, Jack Robbins, Don Roberts, George Rogers, Victor Romito, Benny Rubin, Shimen Ruskin, Edward Ryan, Jack Ryan, Robert Samven, Walter Sande, Jack Santoro, Francis Sayles, Dick Scott, Ruth Seeley, George Sherwood, Brent Shugar, Bruce Sidney, Guy Smith, Roy Smith, Vince Speaker, George Sperry, Sam Steele, Ralph Stein, Bert Stevens, Landers Stevens, Dimas Sutteno, Jack Taylor, Norman Taylor, Bob Terry, Karl Thomas, Robert B. Tobin, Gregg Toland, Kathryn Trosper, Fred Trowbridge, Glen Turnbull, Gohr Van Vleck, Harry J. Vejar, Tim Wallace, Ken Weaver, Charles West, Larry Wheat, Patrick Whitney, Jan Wiley, Bill Wilkens, Larry Williams, Tudor Williams, Richard Wilson, Vivian Wilson, Roland Winters, Vera Winters, Arthur Yeoman, Louis Young
show all“Citizen Kane” Quotes 34 quotes
“He married for love. Love. That's why he did everything. That's why he went into politics. It seems we weren't enough, he wanted all the voters to love him too.”
“- 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.”“There's only one person who's going to decide what I'm going to do and that's me.”
“I can remember everything. That's my curse, young man. It's the greatest curse that's ever been inflicted on the human race: memory.”
I guess "Rosebud" is just a piece in a jigsaw puzzle... a missing piece.
“I don't know how to run a newspaper, Mr. Thatcher; I just try everything I can think of.”
“- Susan Alexander Kane: I don't know many people.
- Kane: I know too many people. I guess we're both lonely.”“- 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.”“Old age. It's the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don't look forward to being cured of.”
“I suppose he had a private sort of greatness, but he kept it to himself.”
“I don't think there's one word that can describe a man's life.”
“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!”
- Newswoman: If you could've found out what "Rosebud" meant, I bet that would've explained everything.
- Jerry Thompson: I don't think so; Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe "Rosebud" was something he couldn't get, or something he lost.“Old age is the only disease you don't look forward to being cured of.”
“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.”
“Rosebud...”
“You don't love anybody! Me or anybody else! You want to be loved - that's all you want! Whatever you want - just name it and it's yours! Only love me! Don't expect me to love you!”
“- Walter Parks Thatcher: What would you like to have been?
- Kane: Everything you hate.”
Highlights
