Pretensions Quotes

(on he and Gene Hackman as young stage actors and roommates in New York): Psychologically, Gene/myself, we did not think about making it in the terms that people think about. We fully expected to be failures for our entire life. Meaning that we would always be scrambling to get a part. We were actors. We had no pretensions. There was more dignity in being unsuccessful.

(Dustin Hoffman on he and Hackman as young stage actors and roommates in New York) Psychologically, Gene/myself, we did not think about making it in the terms that people think about. We fully expected to be failures for our entire life. Meaning that we would always be scrambling to get a part. We were actors. We had no pretensions. There was more dignity in being unsuccessful.

If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.

They`re innocent movies, and they`re fun movies and there were no pretensions about `em.

(on Ron Perlman) Ron Perlman is a giving actor, with no pretensions. He`s wonderful to work with, full of ideas, and a truly gifted actor. When he came onto the production of Mr. Stitch (1995) (TV) the set literally lit up. Working with him was one of the bright moments of my career, and I would work with him again in a hot second. This must sound like I`m going overboard, but Ron has such an elegant, wonderful and bright personality that I honestly don`t think it`s an exaggeration. I mean, how often can you say that you`re a better person for having met someone?

I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man.

Pornography is a satire on human pretensions.

(Pauline Kael never forgave Clint Eastwood for that statement or for making Dirty Harr y, and she was on hand to set her hooks into the inevitable sequel that followed in 1973, Magnum Force . Of that film she wrote:) Clint Eastwood isn`t offensive. He isn`t an actor, so one could hardly call him a bad actor....And acting isn`t required of him in Magnum Force , which takes its name from the giant`s phallus. ... A tall, cold cod like Eastwood removes the last pretensions to human feeling from the action melodrama, making it an impersonal, almost abstract exercise in brutalization.

Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.