Hollywood

Agnes de Mille:
There was great excitement, and great fervor, and great sense of romance, romantic adventure. They didn't know what they were working in. They didn't know what the future would be. They didn't know what they were doing. They knew that every picture broke boundaries. Some one new thing would be done. A new way of handling the camera. A new way of cutting. A new way of lighting. And they would be so excited by it! And my father used to say, always, "We are not real artists. None of us. We are like the pre-Elizabethan dramatists. They were not real playwrights. They were not really great poets. But they made it possible for the next generation, and the generation after, to become great artists and great poets." And he said, "I think there are coming great artists in this medium. But we haven't... we don't know what it is!"

Agnes de Mille:
Whenever they finished a picture, which would be roughly every week... you know, they didn't waste time, they just got ahead and shot it, not always with a scenario... then they'd run it. They'd paste it together and run it. And they asked everybody, all the families, all the children, all the cousins, neighbors sometimes: "Come in, come in! See our picture! We're running it." And then they'd ask everybody what they thought. I cannot believe that it was that simple. But it was. And I think some of that simplicity, and some of that fervor and excitement is in the films. And that's why they're valuable and lovely.

James Mason:
If one producer ever symbolized Hollywood, it was Cecil B. DeMille.

Viola Dana:
[quoting Valentino about his return to Italy] In Italy I was just another WOP.

James Mason:
Bitzer was a technician who put Griffith's ideas onto celluloid.