Abraham Polonsky Quotes

• A holiday is when you celebrate something that's all finished up, that happened a long time ago and now there's nothing left to celebrate but the dead.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Holiday, Long, Celebrate Life

  45 Copy quote

• A man could spend the rest of his life trying to remember what he shouldn't have said.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Men, Trying, Remember

  "Fictional character: Edna Tucker". "Force of Evil", www.imdb.com. 1948.

  4 Copy quote

• First of all, directing is an idea that you have of a total flow of images that are going on, which are incidentally actors, words, and objects in space. It's an idea you have of yourself, like the idea you have of your own personality which finds its best representation in the world in terms of specific flows of imaginary images. That's what directing is.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Ideas, Space, Personality

  "Directing the Film". Book by Ed Sherman, 1976.

  7 Copy quote

• Money has no moral opinions.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Money, Opinion, Moral

  "Fictional character: Joe Morse". "Force of Evil", 1948.

  4 Copy quote

• Directors are like generals, political dictators, aggressive people...And everyone in the film is always grateful if you can tell them what to do.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Grateful, People, Political

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• What do you mean "gangsters"? It's business.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Mean, Gangsters

  "Fictional character: Wally". "Force of Evil", www.imdb.com. 1948.

  12 Copy quote

• It's perversion. Don't you see what it is? It's not natural. To go to great expense for something you want, that's natural. To reach out to take it, that's human, that's natural. But to get your pleasure from not taking, from cheating yourself deliberately like my brother did today, from not getting, from not taking. Don't you see what a black thing that is for a man to do? How it is to hate yourself?

  Abraham Polonsky

  Cheating, Brother, Hate

  7 Copy quote

• Twenty years ago I wanted to move to a nice place so our Charley would grow up a nice boy and learn a profession. But instead we live in a jungle, so he can only be a wild animal. D'you think I picked the East Side like Columbus picked America?

  Abraham Polonsky

  Children, Growing Up, Nice

  7 Copy quote

• I don't take no dive for nobody. Whaddya think I am, a tanker!

  Abraham Polonsky

  Integrity, Thinking, Honor

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• Today in Germany, everyone is being watched--even the watchers.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Germany, Today, Conspiracy

  4 Copy quote

• I want to be a fighter. So fight for something! Not for money.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Money, Character, Fighting

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• Do you know what it's like to love and be alone?

  Abraham Polonsky

  Knows, Do You Know

  4 Copy quote

• Indians don't last in prison. They weren't born for it like the whites.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Lasts, Prison, Born

  "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here", 1969.

  4 Copy quote

• What are you gonna do? Kill me? Everybody dies.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Kill Me, Dies

  "Fictional character: Charlie Davis". "Body and Soul", www.imdb.com. 1947.

  4 Copy quote

• A holiday is when you celebrate something that's all finished up.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Holiday, Relaxation, Celebrate

  8 Copy quote

• If you don't get killed, it's a lucky day for anybody.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Lucky Day, Lucky, Danger

  7 Copy quote

• I'll kill you with my own hands rather than let you put the mark of Cain on my brother!

  Abraham Polonsky

  Loyalty, Brother, Betrayal

  4 Copy quote

• You must never throw away things that are worth good money.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Good Money

  4 Copy quote

• This is Wall Street, and today is important. Because tomorrow, July 4th, I intended to make my first million dollars--an excitingday in a man's life. The enterprise was slightly illegal.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Money, Wall, 4th Of July

  4 Copy quote

• Kids win this'n'that every day. Thousands of them. One out of a hundred fights professionally. One out of a thousand's worth watchin', one out of a million's worth coffee and doughnuts.

  Abraham Polonsky

  Coffee, Kids, Fighting

  4 Copy quote

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