Quotes by Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht

American writer, playwright

Lived from: 1894 - 1964

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 28 february 1894 Died: 18 april 1964

  • A man nearly always loves for other reasons than he thinks. A lover is apt to be as full of secrets from himself as is the object of his love from him.
  • People's sex habits are as well known in Hollywood as their political opinions, and much less criticized.
  • I discovered early in my movie work that a movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it. There are times when this distinction may be given to the writer or director. Most often it belongs to the producer.

Quotes 1 till 20 of 25.

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  • A man nearly always loves for other reasons than he thinks. A lover is apt to be as full of secrets from himself as is the object of his love from him.
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  • Chicago is a sort of journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to a last herd of fantastic bravos.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • Despite all our toil and progress, the art of medicine still falls somewhere between trout casting and spook writing.
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  • Hollywood held this double lure for me, tremendous sums of money for work that required no more effort than a game of pinochle.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • I discovered early in my movie work that a movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it. There are times when this distinction may be given to the writer or director. Most often it belongs to the producer.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • I know that a man who shows me his wealth is like the beggar who shows me his poverty; they are both looking for alms from me, the rich man for the alms of my envy, the poor man for the alms of my guilt.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • I'm a Hollywood writer, so I put on my sports jacket and take off my brain.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • In Hollywood, a starlet is the name for any woman under thirty who is not actively employed in a brothel.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • In moderating, not satisfying desires, lies peace.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • In pre-movie days, the business of peddling lies about life was spotty and unorganized. It was carried on by the cheaper magazines, dime novels, the hinterland preachers and whooping politicians.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • In the court of the movie Owner, none criticized, none doubted. And none dared speak of art. In the Owner's mind art was a synonym for bankruptcy. The movie Owners are the only troupe in the history of entertainment that has never been seduced by the adventure of the entertainment world.
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  • Listen, little boy. In this business, there's only one law you gotta follow to keep outta trouble. Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doin' it.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • Love is a hole in the heart.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • Movies are one of the bad habits that corrupted our century. Of their many sins, I offer as the worst their effect on the intellectual side of the nation. It is chiefly from that viewpoint I write of them - as an eruption of trash that has lamed the American mind and retarded Americans from becoming a cultured people.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • Much more frequent in Hollywood than the emergence of Cinderella is her sudden vanishing. At our party, even in those glowing days, the clock was always striking twelve for someone at the height of greatness; and there was never a prince to fetch her back to the happy scene.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • People's sex habits are as well known in Hollywood as their political opinions, and much less criticized.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety.
    A guide for the bedevilled
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • Producers are men who will keep their heads in the noisy presence of writers and directors and not be carried away by art in any of its subversive guises. Their task is to guard against the unusual. They are the trusted loyalists of cliche.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • The rule in the art world is: you cater to the masses or you kowtow to the elite; you can't have both.
    ― Ben Hecht
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  • There are millions of Americans who belong by nature in movie theaters as they belong at political rallies or in fortuneteller parlors and on the shoot-the-chutes. To these millions, the movies are a sort of boon - a gaudier version of religion.
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What are the most famous quotes from Ben Hecht?

The two most famous quotes from Ben Hecht are:

  • "A man nearly always loves for other reasons than he thinks. A lover is apt to be as full of secrets from himself as is the object of his love from him."
  • "Chicago is a sort of journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to a last herd of fantastic bravos."

When did Ben Hecht live?

Ben Hecht was born in 1894 and died in the year 1964.