Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. Ben Hecht More Quotes by Ben Hecht More Quotes From Ben Hecht In the court of the movie Owner, none criticized, none doubted. And none dared speak of art. In the Owner's mind art was a synonym for bankruptcy. The movie Owners are the only troupe in the history of entertainment that has never been seduced by the adventure of the entertainment world. Ben Hecht movie adventure art I have known a number of Don Juans who were good studs and who cavorted between the sheets without a psychiatrist to guide them. But most of the busy love-makers I knew were looking for masculinity rather than practicing it. They were fellows of dubious lust. Ben Hecht juan lust numbers I see a lot of fog and a few lights. I like it when life's hidden. It gives you a chance to imagine nice things, nicer than they are. Ben Hecht fog nice light There's one thing that keeps surprising you about stormy old friends after they die - their silence. Ben Hecht old-friends silence death Television excites me because it seems to be the last stamping ground of poetry, the last place where I hear women's hair rhapsodically described, women's faces acclaimed in odelike language. Ben Hecht lasts hair television He was in love with life as an ant on a summer blade of grass. Ben Hecht love-life june summer For many years Hollywood held this double lure for me, tremendous sums of money for work that required no more effort than a game of pinochle. Ben Hecht effort games years There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind. Ben Hecht knights dream book The honors Hollywood has for the writer are as dubious as tissue-paper cuff links. Ben Hecht dubious hollywood honor Love's the only thing I've thought of or read about since I was knee-high. That's what I always dreamed of, of meeting somebody and falling in love. And when that remarkable thing happened, I was going to recite poetry to her for hours about how her heart's an angel's wing and her hair the strings of a heavenly harp. Instead I got drunk and hollered at her and called her a harpy. Ben Hecht heart love fall Writing a good movie brings a writer about as much fame as steering a bicycle. It gets him, however, more jobs. If his movie is bad it will attract only critical tut-tut for him. The producer, director and stars are the geniuses who get the hosannas when it's a hit. Theirs are also the heads that are mounted on spears when it's a flop. Ben Hecht stars writing jobs The factors that laid low so whooping and puissant an empire as the old Hollywood are many. I can think of a score, including the barbarian hordes of Television. But there is one that stands out for me in the post-mortem.... The factor had to do with the basis of movie-making: 'Who shall be in charge of telling the story.' Ben Hecht barbarians empires thinking The only practical way yet discovered by the world for curing its ills is to forget about them. Ben Hecht forget way world I have known a handful of producers who actually were equal or superior to the writers with whom they worked. These producers were a new kind of nonwriting writer hatched by the movies - as Australia produced wingless birds. They wrote without pencils or even words. Using a sort of mime-like talent, they could make up things like writers. Ben Hecht australia kind bird When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. Ben Hecht money blessing people They're a symbol of the whole town, pretending to fight, love, weep and laugh all the time - and they're phonies, all of them. And I head the list...their phony hearts were dripping with the milk of human kindness. Ben Hecht fighting kindness heart A movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it. Ben Hecht stupidest connected men People's sex habits are as well known in Hollywood as their political opinions, and much less criticized. Ben Hecht political-opinions sex people In Hollywood a starlet is the name for any woman under thirty who is not actively employed in a brothel. Ben Hecht thirty hollywood names A wise man will always allow a fool to rob him of ideas without yelling “Thief.” Ben Hecht yelling wise men
