Brando Quotes

I would have to say honestly I was very pleased to be in a film whether it was good or bad with De Niro, Norton and Brando even if I don't have any scenes with them, I thought it was pretty good company to keep. ~ Angela Bassett

The truth is that The Wild One -- despite an admittedly fictional treatment -- was an inspired piece of film journalism. Instead of institutionalizing common knowledge, in the style of Time, it told a story that was only beginning to happen and which was inevitably influenced by the film. It gave the outlaws a lasting, romance-glazed image of themselves, a coherent reflection that only a very few had been able to find in a mirror, and it quickly became the bike rider's answer to The Sun Also Rises. The image is not valid, but its wide acceptance can hardly be blamed on the movie. The Wild One was careful to distinguish between "good outlaws" and "bad outlaws," but the people who were most influenced chose to identify with Brando instead of Lee Marvin whose role as the villain was a lot more true to life than Brando's portrayal of the confused hero. They saw themselves as modern Robin Hoods ... virile, inarticulate brutes whose good instincts got warped somewhere in the struggle for self-expression and who spent the rest of their violent lives seeking revenge on a world that done them wrong when they were young and defenseless. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

I can still taste that first beer I bought with my own paycheck. ~ Marlon Brando

Never surrender to the momentum of mediocrity. ~ Marlon Brando

I'm not Jack Nicholson. I'm not Brando. But I do mumble. ~ Benicio Del Toro

My biggest influences as an actor were Marlon Brando, and I really dug James Dean. ~ Larry Bishop

Wearing Deni's huge vicuna coat with the si cap over my ears, in cold biting winds of December New York, Irwin and Simon led me up to the Russian Tea Room to meet Salvador Dali.
He was sitting with his chin on a finely decorated tile headed cane, blue and white, next to his wife at the Cafe table. He had a cane, blue and white, next to his wife at the Cafe table. He had a little wax moustache, thin. When the waiter asked him what he wanted he said 'One grapefruit...peenk!' and he had big blue eyes like a baby, a real or Spaniard. He told us no artist was great unless he made money. Was he talking about Uccello, Ghianondri, Franca? We didn't even know what money really was or what to do with it. Dali had already read an article about the 'insurgent' 'beats' and was interested. When Irwin told him (in Spanish) we wanted to meet Marlon Brando (who ate in this Russian Tea Room) he said, waving three fingers at me, 'He is more beautiful than M. Brando.'
I wondered why he said that but he probably had a tiff with old Marlon. But what he meant was my eyes, which were blue, like his, and my hair, which is black, like his, and when I looked into his eyes, and he looked into my eyes, we couldn't stand all that sadness. In fact, when Dali and I look in the mirror we can't stand all that sadness. To Dali sadness is beautiful. ~ Jack Kerouac

I was the Marlon Brando of my generation. ~ Bette Davis

When I was in high school in the '50s you were supposed to be an Elvis Presley, a James Dean, a Marlon Brando or a Kingston Trio type in a button-down shirt headed for the fraternities at Stanford or Cal. ~ Robert Hass

I've worked with wonderful actors like Marlon Brando and Henry Fonda. ~ Eli Wallach

Anyone of my generation who tells you he hasn't 'done Brando' is lying. ~ James Caan

In a close-up, the audience is only inches away, and your face becomes the stage. ~ Marlon Brando

An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer. ~ Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando was the absolute opposite of everything they told me he was going to be, which is that he was a testy guy who wants to know that he's in control of everything. But, that's not who Marlon was. No matter what he did, the most important thing on his mind was justice. ~ Johnny Depp

Acting, in general, is something most people think they're incapable of, but they do it from morning to night. The subtlest acting I've ever seen is by ordinary people trying to show they feel something they don't, or trying to hide something. It's something everyone learns at an early age. ~ Marlon Brando

I'd recognize this look more and more as I grew older, in places both private and public, for reasons both explicit and unspoken, and once you've been seen through in this way -- once you have been made transparent -- no amount of physical pain matches the weight of invisibility. ~ Brando Skyhorse (Author)

I figure there are a few actors like Marlon Brando, George C. Scott and Laurence Olivier who have been touched by the hand of God. I'm in the next bunch. ~ John Forsythe

I have grown up watching Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan and the likes. These are actors who have changed with time. They have no shelf-life. They have immortalised themselves because they have evolved with time. ~ Arjun Rampal

If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives. ~ Marlon Brando

The thing about Brando was that I'd make these directions, and he'd walk away. He'd heard enough ... to get the machine going. ~ Elia Kazan

It is a simple fact that all of us use the techniques of acting to achieve whatever ends we seek. ~ Marlon Brando

You look at the absolute scorn that gets poured on a fallen celebrity, whether it's Tom Cruise or Lindsay Lohan or Marlon Brando, or Elvis when he got fat. They're not allowed the dignity of ordinary failure. And I think that plays into people's notions about Los Angeles, too. It's not allowed to be a regular city with problems. ~ Matthew Specktor

If you've never known love, you never know where it is, you don't know what it looks like or it sounds like, you look in the most unlikely places to find it. ~ Marlon Brando

There are these mythic unicorn-y tales of method acting, but Marlon [Brando] wanted to have a good time. ~ Johnny Depp

It must have been spring because the big tree in front of the house was shedding pods with two wings like a dragonfly, On days when there wasn't any wind, they would spin around in the air as they drifted softly to the ground.
I watched them float all the way down, sitting with my neck craned back until my mouth opened and holding out my hand just in case, but they never landed on it. When one hit the ground I'd look up again, my eyes darting, waiting for the next magical event, the sun warming the yellow hairs on my head.
Waiting like that for the next magic was as good a moment as any other that I can remember in the last sixty -five years. ~ Marlon Brando

Beat sprouts, I croaked, ashamed I'd reached a point in my life where I had to make decisions like choosing between bean sprouts or potato chips (and then going with fucking bean sprouts!). ~ Brando Skyhorse

So Meyer Lansky was Hyman Roth? Was Marlon Brando Frank Costello? The confusion was compounded when quite serious newspapers started incorporating Godfather comparisons into their reporting on organized crime. ~ Robert Lacey

We don't go anywhere. Going somewhere is for squares. We just go! ~ Marlon Brando

'Whatever it takes' is my opinion of method acting and, indeed, any other kind of acting. Look at Brando and De Niro. But it's not my cup of tea. ~ Ian Holm

I don't mind that I'm fat. You still get the same money. ~ Marlon Brando

Brando said he'd noticed that powerful people spoke quietly, and Don Corleone's quiet calm and nearly inaudible speaking voice are key to the character. When Corleone speaks, you have to be quiet to hear him. What can we learn from Don Corleone (that doesn't involve killing people)? That quiet does have its own power, if we harness it. ~ Sophia Dembling

Marlon Brando is the most influential movie actor of the century. ~ Roger Ebert

A floor length backless black sequined dress would be my dream dress. As for my dream date - that would have to be a young Marlon Brando! ~ Rebecca Hall

You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes ~ Corey Taylor

Dodie: "Mama, Jamie's up on the hill and he's f***g a goat!"
Mama: "Well, it's Jamie's goat, ain't it?"
-Peter Manso illustrates the brash wit pervasive in the Brando family with this exchange between Dodie Brando, Marlon's mother, and her mother in-law. ~ Peter Manso

I value each woman for what she has to offer whether it be charm-beauty-wit-intelligence or humor but warmth is the quality I value most. ~ Marlon Brando

If 'The Wild One' were filmed today, Marlon Brando and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would all have to wear helmets. I used to be afraid that when (Hells) Angels became movie stars and Cal the hero of the book, the bikerider would perish on the coffee tables of America. But now I think that this attention doesn't have the strength of reality of the people it aspires to know, and that as long as Harley-Davidsons are manufactured other bikeriders will appear, riding unknown and beautiful through Chicago, into the streets of Cicero. ~ Danny Lyon

I love Marlon Brando. Never seem him bad, just less good. ~ Lee Marvin

The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them. ~ Marlon Brando

an amaranthine valley of orange groves ~ Brando Skyhorse

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication. ~ Marlon Brando

People often say that an actor 'plays' a character well, but that's an amateurish notion. Developing a characterization is not merely a matter of putting on makeup and a costume and stuffing Kleenex in your mouth. That's what actors used to do, and then called it a characterization. In acting everything comes out of what you are, or some aspect of who you are. ~ Marlon Brando

I don't care whether they're men or women, that's bullshit. A good writer can get into any gender, can get into any mouth. When I write I may be a Brando creep, or a girl laying on the floor, or a Japanese tourist, or a slob like Richard Speck. You have to be a chameleon when you're writing. ~ Patti Smith

I love John Travolta, who came off that Kotter show. Nobody knew he could dance or do all of those things. He is like - boom. Before he knew it, he was the next big Brando or something. ~ Michael Jackson

I really loved the idea of playing opposite Marlon Brando and being the crazy one. ~ Johnny Depp

People around me never say anything. They just seem to want to hear what I have to say. That's why I do all the talking. ~ Marlon Brando

[...] I realize that to forgive with your mind is not always to forgive in your heart. ~ Marlon Brando

I refused to be a fool dancing on a string held by all of those big shots. I don't apologise, that's my life ~ Marlon Brando

I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream. That's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor and surviving. ~ Marlon Brando

I have eyes like those of a dead pig. ~ Marlon Brando

But to this day I am convinced that the real reason we met was because Alexander is from Nebraska, and he was completely fascinated that I was about to go off and make a movie with Brando - perhaps the most famous Nebraskan of all. ~ Thomas Haden Church

Mafia is the best example of capitalism we have. ~ Marlon Brando

I was the female Marlon Brando of my generation. ~ Bette Davis

Every spring the meadow in front of the house became an ocean of canary-colored mustard blossoms, and when a wind came up, it was like watching a sea of rippling golden waves rising and falling with the breeze like breakers just before they pound into a reef. ~ Marlon Brando

The Jews control Hollywood and use it to promote their own agenda. ~ Marlon Brando

If we are not our brother's keeper, at least let us not be his executioner. ~ Marlon Brando

Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent. ~ Marlon Brando

Acting serves as the quintessential social lubricant and a device for protecting our interests and gaining advantage in every aspect of life. ~ Marlon Brando

An actor is a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, he ain't listening! ~ Marlon Brando

It really don't matter what you're thinking about, as long as you're thinking about something. ~ Marlon Brando

I see film roles as lovely presents that come along now and again. I feel really lucky and say thank you very much. And if they fly me to L.A., I think, 'God, I must really be doing well.' I've worked with De Niro and Brando and Pacino, and that's made me feel very lucky. But the films have never meant a lot to me. ~ Michael Gambon

There's a line in the picture where he (Johnny - The Wild One) snarls, 'Nobody tells me what to do.' That's exactly how I've felt all my life. ~ Marlon Brando

Someone I met years ago explained to me the difference between a personality and an actor, a personality being Eddie Murphy or Roseanne Barr, and an actor being Morgan Freeman and Alfre Woodard or Marlon Brando. ~ Orlando Jones

I had to read Wuthering Heights for English and I never enjoyed a book in all my life as much as that one. ~ Marlon Brando

I admired Marlon Brando as I grew up. I though he was one of the finest screen actors around. ~ Michael Caine

The military mind has one aim, and that is to make soldiers react as mechanically as possible. They want the same predictability in a man as they do in a telephone or a machine gun, and they train their soldiers to act as a unit, not as individuals. ~ Marlon Brando

You are always a comedian by default. You are this way because you've been forced to be this way, but it is better to be the hero. So if you can be a persona, the great one of my lifetime of course was and is Marlon Brando. ~ Woody Allen

Ask most kids about details about Auschwitz or about how the American Indians were assassinated as a people and they don't know anything about it. They don't want to know anything. Most people just want their beer or their soap opera or their lullaby. ~ Marlon Brando

He secretly thinks he looks like Marlon Brando, but take a good look a young Marlin Perkins is more like it! Maybe that's what he sees in Annette Kelper - he's an animal lover. ~ David Sedaris

[Marlon] Brando was the only guy who could step out of that shadow at the end of that movie and be worth the wait. ~ Roger Ebert

I felt as if I was the brunt of some massive joke at my expense: Can you believe this loser can be connected to Marlon Brando and Katharine Hepburn? But through the years I have learned to tolerate and sometimes embrace the idea. People have asked me if I consider it an honour. Well, all it indicates is that I've been in a lot of movies with a lot of people. And besides that there are plenty of other actors that would work. ~ Kevin Bacon

There is no elegy for those who have been dispossessed of their anger
what remains is a future carved out of banality instead of blood. ~ Brando Skyhorse

You know one scene I always think about is in 'The Godfather', when Marlon Brando's in the hospital. Al Pacino arrives there and enlists the help of the baker to protect his father. The two of them stand outside and the baker fiddles with a cigarette lighter, but Pacino's hands are rock steady. That's when we sort of realize that he can do this. ~ Garret Dillahunt

Bertolucci is extraordinary in his ability to perceive, he's a poet ... he is very easy to work for. ~ Marlon Brando

( ... the non-conformist, how do you keep from getting scarred?)/i don't! i got a scar here ... and uh i got a scar on my knee ... and uh a few scars on my soul. ~ Marlon Brando

It was just the thrill of a lifetime. Brando and Hackman were two of my heroes. ~ Richard Donner

You were Marlon Brando, I was Steve McQueen, you were K.Y. Jelly, I was Vaseline. ~ Leonard Cohen

I got in my car and followed [Marlon Brando] down to Chinatown, and got about twelve shots. Brando called me over and said, What else do you want that you don't have already? And I said, I'd like a picture without the sunglasses. He said no and punched me right in the jaw, It was so fast I didn't see it coming. Blood was gushing out of my mouth. I drove to Bellevue. The jawbone and five teeth were broken ... To this day he has scars on his knuckles from my teeth. ~ Ron Galella

If you want something from an audience, you give blood to their fantasies. It's the ultimate hustle. ~ Marlon Brando

I don't know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I'm going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass. ~ Marlon Brando

'The Simpsons' is like Charlie Parker or Marlon Brando or Richard Pryor: Comedy couldn't go back to the way it was after 'The Simpsons' came out. ~ Eric Andre

I travel to work on my motorcycle, so it's jeans, boots and a brown Aero leather jacket that weighs as much as I do. If it were black, it would seem like I've got a Brando idea going on, which I don't. ~ Hugh Laurie

The most realistic blood I've seen is when Marlon Brando gets beat up in On The Waterfront. ~ George A. Romero

The more sensitive you are, the more certain you are to be brutalized, develop scabs, never evolve. Never allow yourself to feel anything, because you always feel to much. ~ Marlon Brando

I grew up watching Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Robert de Niro, and Al Pacino and even Robert Duvall and was impressed by their caliber of work. ~ Cole Hauser

I'd worked with Marlon [Brando] a couple of times, and he was a practical joker. He was far more interested in getting jokes out than getting the words out. We laughed all the time. ~ Johnny Depp

[D]id you ever notice how friendships are a lot like pop songs? They are for girls, anyway. First there's the newness of it, the melody that streams into your head and makes you wonder ― will I like this song? Then come the vocals, what the song's heart truly sounds like, and with it the song's purpose, it's lyrics ― will they say something meaningful about my life? Will these words help me through a difficult time, or create a memory that will make me smile whenever I hear this song again? ~ Brando Skyhorse

I suppose the story of my life is a search for love, but more than that, I have been looking for a way to repair myself from the damages I suffered early on and to define my obligation, if I had any, to myself and my species. ~ Marlon Brando

I mean, the actors that I admired were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, an actress named Barbara Harris. And Greta Garbo. They were great actors. ~ Robert De Niro

I wasn't a babe in the woods. I'd watched a lot of stars, from James Dean to Brando, and I'd seen everybody alive work at MGM. I had a certain old-timer's quality, even though I was young and new, and drew on what I believed before I made it. ~ Jack Nicholson

This guy (Marlon Brando) - he'll be doing Hamlet when the rest of us are selling potatoes. ~ Humphrey Bogart

James Dean taught me not to speed, River Phoenix taught me not to DO speed, and Marlon Brando taught me to slow down on the cheeseburgers. ~ Emile Hirsch

If I am duly compared to Marlon Brando at all, well, I can only think of The Teahouse of the 'Shanghai Noon,' that they're comparing me to that! ~ Tom Hardy

I love Marlon Brando and James Dean. That was when it was all about the star and the script. Nowadays, everything has to be action-packed. ~ Ansel Elgort

With women, I've got a long bamboo pole with a leather loop on the end. I slip the loop around their necks so they can't get away or come too close. Like catching snakes. ~ Marlon Brando

Well, there's a great Marlon Brando quote that to do something well you have to spiritually marry your director. You have to be making the same movie they are in that you have to try to help their imagination be better, and more full, and more fully realized, but you can't have a different imagination because then you end up - and you see this a lot in movies - where it feels like they were making five different films. ~ Ethan Hawke

A Murphy [Eddie Murphy] movie is like a Sidney Poitier comedy - he's that intensely good ... He revolutionized acting. He's literally black Brando. Before Eddie Murphy, there were two schools of acting for a black actor: Either you played it LIKE THIS or youplayeditlahkdis. He was the first black guy in a movie to talk like I am talking right now. That did not exist for black actors before him. ~ Scott Raab

[...] My sisters were either still at school or with friends, my mother was out drinking and my father was out whoring. As a result, I sought - as I still do - affection, loyalty and friendship from animals. ~ Marlon Brando

Faith is a luxury for those who are able to ignore what the rest of us must see every day. Pessimism, distrust, and irony are the holy trinity of my religion, irony in particular. ~ Brando Skyhorse

I really admire artists who take the time to recharge their batteries and not continually call on it. I think you can spot tired and jaded artists quite quickly. ~ Rupert Friend