- [quoted by G.W. Bitzer in "Billy Bitzer: His Story."] A film without a message is just a waste of time.
- [Instructions Griffith allegedly gave to his assistants during the making of one of his epics, quoted by Josef von Sternberg in his memoir "Fun in a Chinese Laundry"] Move these 10,000 horses a trifle to the right, and that mob out there three feet forward.
- There will never be talking pictures.
- Talkies, squeakies, moanies, songies, squawkies . . . Just give them ten years to develop and you're going to see the greatest artistic medium the world has known.
- Actors should never be important. Only directors should have power and place.
- Everything went downhill after Lillian [Lillian Gish] left me.
- [on what people associated with silent films] The good old American faculty of wanting to be shown things.
- I made them see, didn't I? I changed everything.
- Remember how small the world was before I came along? I brought it all to life: I moved the whole world onto a 20-foot screen.
- Movies are written in sand: applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? What art? What science?
- [on Douglas Fairbanks] He has such verve. He can use his body.
- We do not want now and we never shall want the human voice with our films. Music -- fine music -- will always be the voice of the silent drama.
- [on James Mason] That Mason is the greatest actor.
- [on sound movies] It is my arrogant belief that we have lost beauty.
- [on Mary Pickford] She never stopped listening and learning.
- [to Mary Pickford] You're too little and too fat, but I might give you a job.
- [on being honored at the 1935 Academy Awards ceremony] We had many worries in those days, small worries. Now you people have your worries and they are big ones. They have grown with the business - and no matter what its problems, it's the greatest business in the world.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content