I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.
— Elia Kazan
I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists' advertising or recruiting technique.
I value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.
Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.
I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.
There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.
To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but is bitter and unforgettable.
I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.
The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.
Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.
I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.
The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.
The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.
I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.
Hey, you must be doin' good, 'cause I never hear from you.
I'm small, but I'm neither compliant nor agreeable.
I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.
