Otto Preminger Quotes

I never seek controversy or foresee it for my pictures. I take a personal stand, and perhaps because my films are on contemporary subjects, people do not share my point of view.

Otto Preminger

• People
• Stand
• View

When I finish a film, I want to forget it. I never like to repeat myself. Maybe, when I am dead, they will find certain consistencies in the style of my films, but I never want one film to look like another.

Otto Preminger

• Myself
• Style
• Finish

I live in the present. When I finish a film, it is behind me. My reward is in my work, not in a lot of old memories.

Otto Preminger

• Work
• Live
• Present

Directing Marilyn Monroe was like directing Lassie. You needed fourteen takes to get each one of them right.

Otto Preminger

• You
• Like
• Directing

What counts isn't the frame, it's what you put in it.

Otto Preminger

• You
• Counts
• Frame

I do not welcome advice from actors; they are here to act.

Otto Preminger

• Advice
• Act
• Welcome

I stopped acting when I was 19. The only time I acted again was during the war, when there were no other Nazis available.

Otto Preminger

• Time
• War
• Acting

When I was a young actor in Vienna, already my hair was falling out at a rapid rate. I went to a doctor, who said hair was like grass: if you mow it, then it grows back stronger. So I went to Brittany, where nobody knew me, and I shaved my head. When it grew back - only the fringes!

Otto Preminger

• Hair
• Stronger
• Doctor

Directing her was like directing Lassie. You need 14 takes to get each one of them right.

Otto Preminger

• You
• Need
• Her

I can't talk about every single film I made. It's not my way to go back into the past and to look at my old pictures and to discuss them.

Otto Preminger

• Past
• Single
• Look