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The following are
quotes by Dean himself.
"You can't do the things I'm doing. I can
flirt with death and come through"
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"To grasp the full significance of life is
the actor's duty; to interpret it his problem;
and to express it his dedication. Being an actor
is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all
alone with your concentration and imagination,
and that's all you have. Being a good actor isn't
easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be
both before I'm done."
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"Racing is the only time I feel whole"
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" Change is the nature of genius."
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"Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help
an actor develop his character. There are a lot
of things I learned from animals. One was that
they couldn't hiss or boo me. I also became close
to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty
with which this world is endowed."
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"Whatever's inside making me what I am it's
like film. Film only works in the dark. Tear it
all open and let in the light and you kill it."
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"Since I'm only 24 years old, guess I have
as good an insight into this rising generation
as any other young man my age. And I've discovered
that most young men do not stand like ramrods
or talk like Demosthenes. Therefore, when I do
play a youth, such as in Warner Bros. Rebel Without
A Cause, I try to imitate life. The picture deals
with the problems of modern youth. It is the romanticized
conception of the juvenile that causes much of
our trouble with misguided youth nowadays. I think
the one thing this picture shows that's new is
the psychological disproportion of the kids' demands
on the parents. Parents are often at fault, but
the kids have some work to do, too. But you can't
show some far off idyllic conception of behavior
if you want the kids to come and see the picture.
You've got to show what it's really like, and
try to reach them on their own grounds. You know,
a lot of times an older boy, one of the fellows
the young ones idolize, can go back to the high
school kids and tell them, "Look what happened
to me! Why be a punk and get in trouble with the
law?Why do these senseless things just for a thrill?"
I hope "Rebel Without A Cause" will
do something like that. I hope it will remind
them that other people have feelings. Perhaps
they will say, "What do we need all that
for?"If a picture is psychologically motivated,
if there is truth in the relationship in it, then
I think that picture will do good. I firmly believe
Rebel Without A Cause is such a picture."
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"Old Hemingway squeezed the juice out of
life... I'm not going to live past 30."
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"When an actor plays a scene exactly the
way a director orders, it isn’t acting.
It’s following instructions. Anyone with
the physical qualifications can do that. So the
director’s task is just that – to
direct, to point the way. Then the actor takes
over. And he must be allowed the space, the freedom
to express himself in the role. Without that space,
an actor is no more than an unthinking robot with
a chest-full of push-buttons."
The following are
quotes about Dean.
"In Texas, one disgustingly hot night during
the filming of Giant, he and I ate a full jar
of peanut butter, a box of crackers and six Milky
Ways, and drank twelve Coca-Cola's!" Mercedes
McCambridge (Luz Benedict) from
her autobiography, "The Quality of Mercy"
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" Before James Dean you were either a baby
or a man. There was nothing in-between..."
Sal Mineo
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"I think he didn't understand what he was
all about. He was very frustrated because he felt
there was something within himself that he didn't
understand. He knew that he wanted to go some
place and the place he wanted to go to - he didn't
understand that either. And he was reaching for
someone to help him find out whatever it was he
wanted to reach." Eartha
Kitt
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"He wanted to do everything for us, buy us
presents - just keep us. Any bills we had we would
pay. We were young and had our own careers and
our pride and we could't handle it. Jimmy had
our love anyway - he didn't have to start buying
it." Actress/girlfriend
Elizabeth 'Dizzy' Sheridan
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"He didn't comb his hair. He had a safety
pin holding his pants together. He was introspective
and very shy." Natalie
Wood
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' There was something suicidal in his nature.
but I don't think it was a conscious thing."
Carroll Baker
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"Dean was never a friend of mine, but he
had an idèe fixe about me. Whatever
I did, he did. He was always trying to get close
to me. He used to call up. I'd listen to him talking
to the answering service, asking for me, leaving
messages. But I never spoke up. I never called
him back." Marlon
Brando
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