You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.
Elia KazanRead
Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the dual roles people often play in society, switching between being participants and commentators.
Elia Kazan's quote suggests that individuals tend to adopt different perspectives depending on their contextβacting as contributors in one instance and as critics in another. This duality reflects the complexity of human behavior, where one's role can shift based on circumstances, highlighting the interplay between action and observation in social dynamics.
Themes
CriticismActingRolesSocietyHuman Behavior
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about teamwork, this quote can serve to illustrate how members may comment from different perspectives.
More from Elia Kazan
All quotes βActing... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
Elia KazanRead
I've come to believe that everything worth achieving is beyond one's capacity - or seems so at first. The thing is to persist, not back off, fight your fight, pay your dues, and carry on. Effort is all; continue and you may get there despite everything.
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A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.
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To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but it is bitter and unforgettable.
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I've lost many of my best friends... I'm going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.
Elia KazanRead
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I thought there's something to be said for honor in this world where there doesn't seem to be any honor left. I thought that maybe happiness wasn't really anything more than the knowledge of a life well spent, in spite of whatever immediate discomfort you had to undergo, and that if a life well spent meant compromises and conciliations and reconciliations, and suffering at the hands of the person you love, well then better that than live without honor.
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We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world....No doubt pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. it removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of the rebel soul.
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For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown
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Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.
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