Marlon Brando Quotes

“If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.”
― Marlon Brando

“The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money." —Marlon Brando”
― David DeBacco, The Sushi Chef

“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. -- Stella Adler”
― Sheana Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting

“Life often functions in dull repetition, but humanity does not operate in patterns. Experiences are random to the point of them never happening again. People are different and they shift throughout space over time. Nothing may repeat. There is no one in a million. There is one in one. It was why no summer was the same. It was why some lips in history never got to test if they were good kissers. It was why Ali lost to Frazier but Frazier lost to Foreman. It is why film does not get another Marlon Brando and no music, however similar, can be compared to Debussy. To resurrect these greats is like trying to re-enter a lost dream. The shore motions toward the feet and never meets them exactly again.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, A Happy Ghost

“Marlon Brando acted with passion. His mission was to act . . . and act as though he was not acting. His dialogue had this eloquence of supreme hauteur that singled him out as a winsome virtuoso of invaluable art.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“Marlon’s worldly possessions went up for auction at Christie’s New York showroom a year after his death. Among the 320 objects were some knickknacks (Marlon preferred the Yiddish word chotchkes).”
― Stefan Kanfer, Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando

“When a plane departed the atoll after delivering construction supplies, its passengers were given lists of things we needed from town. On one occasion, my wife, Dora DeLarios, went to Papeete for the day. Marlon had given her a shopping list for food for the evening meal and the list included a bottle of rum. When Dora’s plane got back that evening, Marlon discovered that Dora had forgotten his rum and yelled at her. She got so fed up, she took a swing at him and knocked his hat off. I’d never seen Marlon with quite such an expression — surprise, anger, confusion, and amusement all at once. Dora was not to be reckoned with, and Marlon, who could have decked her, controlled himself.”
― Bernard Judge, Waltzing With Brando: Planning a Paradise in Tahiti

“Brando’s longtime Brown, Kraft & Co. accountant, George Pakkala, had told me, in his kind way, Brando had spent over three-quarters of a million dollars on Tetiaroa, since taking over the resort project from my predecessor, Bernard Judge, with almost nothing to show for it.”
― Roger C. Vergin, Brando: With His Guard Down

“Brando friend and cinematographer, Conrad Hall, suggested another means of eradicating our rodent infestation: “You take a 50-gallon drum, remove the top, and bury it with some open coconuts in the bottom. Some rats will fall in, attracted by the food, and won’t be able to get out. To avoid starving, they will eat each other. More rats will fall in until all the rats on the island will have eaten each other except the last one, which will be bigger and stronger than all the others. Then, you just club the fucker to death.”
Marlon came back with a better idea: “You take that last fat rat and send him to Hollywood where he becomes the head of a studio. Then you club him to death.”
― Bernard Judge, Waltzing With Brando: Planning a Paradise in Tahiti