- Orson Welles, Himself: A stick was straining. What happens when it breaks? Absurdity becomes the norm.
- Mark Cousins, Himself: The world has become more Wellesian, Orson. The despots that you were fascinated by are gaining ground. Things seem exaggerated. But, what is Wellesian? Who were you?
- Beatrice Welles, Herself: This letter was written on the fourteenth of October in 1931, when Dad was still living in Chicago. And it is unopened.
- [opens the envelop]
- Beatrice Welles, Herself: There's nothing in it.
- [laughs]
- Beatrice Welles, Herself: Ah, this is too funny. He forgot to put something - this is insane.
- Mark Cousins, Himself: You were hoping that there'd be some secret in that envelop, Orson? Some new way of seeing you?
- Beatrice Welles, Herself: Isn't that wild?
- Student, after a screening of "The Trial": One of the changes you made to the story was at the very end when Josef K is killed, he's killed in a - a very alarmingly different way than in the book. And, I was really curious as to why you changed both the way he was killed and the way he was acting when he died?
- Orson Welles, Himself: Because the book was written before the Holocaust.
- [long pause]
- Orson Welles, Himself: And I couldn't bear the defeat of K in the book - after the Holocaust. I'm not Jewish; but, we are all Jewish since the Holocaust. And I couldn't bear for him to submit to death, as he does in Kafka. Masochistically, submit to death. It *stank* of the old... Prague Ghetto to me.
- Orson Welles, Himself: I'm rather fond of chivalry and honor. And I - I - to use a hackneyed, drug-store psychiatry word, I identify with Quixote to the extent that I am interested in outmoded virtues.
- Bernard Levin, Himself: The virtues of chivalry?
- Orson Welles, Himself: Yes. Honor and personal honor and courage and things like that.
- Bernard Levin, Himself: Well, you're clearly a romantic, whatever else you are and very much so.
- Orson Welles, Himself: I suppose so.
- Bernard Levin, Himself: But, aren't you a romantic in a very unromantic time?
- Orson Welles, Himself: Yes!
- Bernard Levin, Himself: Do you feel out of your time?
- Orson Welles, Himself: Yes, oh yes. I think every self-respecting artist ought to.
- Orson Welles, Himself: My ending of "The Lady from Shanghai", that crane shot as I walk into the empty Fun Fair.
- Michael O'Hara [the Lady from Shanghai]: Everybody is somebody's fool. The only way to stay out of trouble is to grow old. So, I guess I'll concentrate on that. Maybe I'll live so long that - I'll forget her. Maybe I'll die - trying.
- Orson Welles, Himself: That's more important than the ending of "The Trial".
- Orson Welles, Himself: You split my politics with my love. But, they're the same thing. Or, at least, have the same root. You missed how funny I found it all. You do know that life is a circus, don't you?
- Orson Welles, Himself: Since you mentioned Mr. Arkadin, recall if you can it's climax. I stalk through the film like a shadow; but, the world of my story is absurd. Arkadin's character, Zouk, has lost his pants!
- Jakob Zouk [Akim Tamiroff - Mr. Arkadin]: What's he gonna think if he catches me out here dancing around in my underdrawers?
- Orson Welles, Himself: Does it remind you of anything? Laurel and Hardy, perhaps? My camera was usually lower, of course, but the *humanity* in Stan and Ollie is the same. The childishness. The circus.