I have always used the world of make-believe with a certain desperation.

God did not need any assistance, but man did; bitterly he wanted it, and the giving of such assistance was the proper business of a woman.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

I find it hard to settle into a normal, routine environment.

In that wide struggle which we call Progress, evil is always the aggressor and the vanquished, and it is right that this should be so, for without its onslaughts and depredations humanity might fall...

The lovers of romance can go elsewhere for satisfaction but where can the lovers of truth turn if not to history?

Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.

With each character in a movie, I'm looking for a human being. I'm looking for a person. And to me, I'm looking for a person that's full of strengths and weaknesses, a person that's full of successes...

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.

Quarreling over food and drink, having neither scruples nor shame, not knowing right from wrong, not trying to avoid death or injury, not fearful of greater strength or of greater numbers, greedily...

We are a naturally hierarchical species.

People ask what the advantages are of wearing a mask, and the first thing, of course, is the mystery - people don't know exactly what Kane is thinking.

He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.

Heroes, whatever high ideas we may have of them, are mortal and not divine. We are all as God made us and many of us much worse.

When you cross the whitewash, you only think about the present.

When you have brothers, you learn to be fiercely competitive with someone you love so they won't kill you and you won't kill them.

Everybody has flaws, and every country has flaws. But you can still love something even though you know it's been so wrong before, and sometimes is now, and probably will be again.

Strength of 100 men? I'd probably just get mad and hurt somebody and end up in jail. I think invisibility would probably be the best thing. I could be like, 'You know what, let me just see what these...

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.

Every dog is a lion at home.

Man's wisdom is his best friend; folly his worst enemy.

How sad it is that these great gentlemen should believe what anyone tells them and do not choose to judge for themselves! But it is always so.

I knew exactly what to do on Alien, it was funny.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

In marriage, a man becomes slack and selfish, and undergoes a fatty degeneration of his moral being.

It's always more interesting to take on someone that's going to have hidden sides or a fatal flaw, because there's going to be more to play with - more conflict, internally or in and around them - but...

In the military, you learn the essence of people. You see so many examples of self-sacrifice and moral courage. In the rest of life, you don't get that many opportunities to be sure of your friends.

There is a fascination with fear. It grabs our attention.

The human relationship to combustion is as mysterious as it is fraught with madness. From the candle flame to the nuclear blast, it has lit up the human imagination with fear and fascination.