Joseph L. Mankiewicz

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• I am never quite sure whether I am one of the cinema's elder statesmen or just the oldest whore on the beat.
  • Time magazine (1970-09-14) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902764,00.html

• I have a lot to be sad about. Not bitter in any way. But I think it can be fairly said that I've been in on the beginning, the rise, peak, collapse and end of the talking picture.
  • "Joseph Mankiewicz, Master of the Movies," interview by Paul Attanasio, Washington Post (1986-06-01)

• I got a job at Metro and went in to see Louis Mayer, who told me he wanted me to be a producer. I said I wanted to write and direct. He said, "No, you have to produce first, you have to crawl before you can walk." Which is as good a definition of producing as I ever heard.
  • Quoted in Leslie Halliwell, Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies, 15th edition (Harper Collins, 2003, ISBN 0-060-53423-0), p. 312

• Every screenwriter worthy of the name has already directed his film when he has written his script.
  • Quoted in Leslie Halliwell, Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies, 15th edition (Harper Collins, 2003, ISBN 0-060-53423-0), p. 312