Peter Biskind > Quotes

“In order to get [Mean Streets] made I had to learn how to make a movie," says Scorsese. "I didn't learn how to make a movie in film school. What you learned in film school was to express yourself with pictures and sound. But learning to make a movie is totally different.”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

“I've always felt there are three sexes: men, women, and actors. And actors combine the worst qualities of the other two.”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson

“My theory is that everything went to hell with Prohibition, because it was a law nobody could obey. So the whole concept of the rule of law was corrupted at that moment. Then came Vietnam, and marijuana, which clearly shouldn't be illegal, but is. If you go to jail for ten years in Texas when you light up a joint, who are you? You're a lawbreaker. It's just like Prohibition was. When people accept breaking the law as normal, something happens to the whole society. You see?”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson

“I regard posterity as vulgar as success. I don't trust posterity. I don't think what's good is necessarily recognized in the long run. Too many good writers have disappeared.”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson

“I have all the equipment to be a politician. Total shamelessness. But it's lucky I never ran. In the years from [Joseph] McCarthy to now, I would have either been destroyed or reduced.”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson

“I cannot, in my old age, live off pieces of my youth.”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson

“It's absolutely impossible to have a serious critical discussion about enthusiasms for movie stars. Because a movie star is an animal separate from acting. Sometimes, he or she is a great actor. Sometimes a third-rate one. But the star is something that you fall in love with ...”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson

“There can be nothing more sterile than an extended conversation between two people who basically agree. If we basically disagreed we’d be getting somewhere.”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles

“dilatory”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“Kael”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“Okay. But, he didn’t do anything to hurt people. OW: Well, he destroyed [Erich] von Stroheim, as a man and as an artist. Literally destroyed him. And von Stroheim at that moment was, I think, demonstrably the most gifted director in Hollywood. Von Stroheim was the greatest argument against the producer. He was so clearly a genius, and so clearly should have been left alone—no matter what crazy thing he did—”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles

“ebullient.”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“baleful”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“parricide.”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“Hayworth, the former Margarita Carmen Cansino, was, of course, one of the brightest stars of the forties and early fifties, so much so that the crew of the Enola Gay is rumored to have used her pinup decal as “nose art” for either the bomber or its payload, Little Boy, before dropping it on Hiroshima. Welles”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles

“nebbishy”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“potentate”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“Kit”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“Mardik”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“For nearly two years, Bert had been taking care of Susan Branaman, who was dying of cancer. ... When she died, Bert held a wake for her. Her body had been cremated, and her remains sat out in bowls. The bereaved guests snorted the ashes, like they snorted coke.”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

“repentant”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“hale,”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“impetuous”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“big sucking hole.”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“pugnacious”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“ingenue.”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

“But I still don’t think your point is right. It’s because of the old tradition of the Whig—of the liberal rich, the old tradition of public service and of liberalism—Roosevelt was a genuine, old-fashioned American Whig. The last and best example of it. And—”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles

“He would say, ‘So nice to see you too, but that’s enough.’ He would try to intimidate them.” Jaglom asked him why. Pointing at his pug nose, he would answer, “You have to do something to let them know that you’re not just a little creature. You have to be the ruler of the forest. People want me to be ‘Orson Welles.’ They want the dancing bear show.” “You don’t need that. You’re not so insecure that—” “I’m much more insecure than even you know, Henry.” “I don’t believe that. You’re arrogant and sure of yourself.” “Yes, I’m sure of myself, but I’m not sure of anybody else.”
― Peter Biskind, My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles

“infantilizing”
― Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls