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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “Even though I’m writing about very dark material, it still feels like an escape hatch.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” — Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
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Tag Archives: John Wayne
“It was the Marines who taught me how to act. After that, pretending to be rough wasn’t so hard.” — Lee Marvin
“You know, as character actors we play all kinds of sex psychos, nuts, creeps, perverts, and weirdos. And we laugh it off, saying what the hell it’s just a character. But deep down inside, it’s you, baby.” — Lee Marvin … Continue reading
“The main thing about directing is: photograph the people’s eyes.” — John Ford
It’s his birthday today. For Film Comment, I wrote about his somber, emotional WWII movie, with the title that really BITES: They Were Expendable. And they really were expendable. It’s an amazing film and – in my opinion – one … Continue reading
For D-Day: John Ford’s They Were Expendable (1945)
In 2019, for D-Day, I wrote about John Ford’s magnificent They Were Expendable, one of the best war movies ever made. Thank you to all those who sacrificed their lives — not just Americans — in the name of liberty … Continue reading
An Acting Lesson: John Wayne and the “Reality of the Doing”
An old piece, re-posted for John Wayne’s birthday: In one lengthy scene in Hondo, filmed in one almost unbroken take, Wayne makes horseshoes in the little outdoor smith in the yard. Geraldine Page hovers nearby. He talks to her about … Continue reading
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
— My good friend Charlie Taylor is on fire in the LA Review of Books, reviewing Steve Erickson’s American Stutter. — Conversations with Friends, by Sally Rooney. Like everybody else on the planet, I read and loved Rooney’s Normal People … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged fiction, friends, Ireland, John Wayne, politics, stuff I've been reading, Victor Serge
2 Comments
“If you’re going to make a gesture, make it.” — John Wayne
For his birthday: One of my favorite quotes about acting comes from John Wayne. It’s included in Peter Bogdanovich’s Who the Hell’s in It: Conversations with Hollywood’s Legendary Actors: Peter Bogdanovich: Your gestures in pictures are often daring — large … Continue reading
Happy Birthday, John Ford: Doorways in The Searchers
Are you going in or are you staying out? In the world of John Ford’s The Searchers you must choose. You can’t have both. The Searchers takes place on the threshold of that choice, in the abyss of the borderlands, … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged John Ford, John Wayne, The Searchers, westerns
30 Comments
For John Wayne’s Birthday: Hondo (1953) at MoMA: John Wayne in 3D
In real life John Wayne was huge, 6’3″, with broad shoulders, a lean waist, and long ambling legs. He towered over everybody. And yet, he was always graceful. His athleticism is extraordinary, his physicality smooth and controlled. So he was … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Dennis Hopper, Gary Cooper, Gena Rowlands, Geraldine Page, James Dean, John Wayne, Sanford Meisner, Supernatural, westerns
45 Comments