- 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.
- Any good movie is filled with secrets. If a director doesn't leave anything unsaid, it's a lousy picture. If a picture's unsaid, it's a lousy picture. If a picture is good, it's mysterious, with things unsaid.
- [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.
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