Josef von Sternberg Quotes

Shadow conceals—light reveals. To know what to reveal and what to conceal, and in what degrees to do this, is all there is to art.

Every light has a point where it is brightest and a point toward which it wanders to lose itself completely. It must be intercepted to fulfill its mission; it cannot function in a void. Light can go straight, penetrate and turn back, be reflected and deflected, gathered and spread, bent as by a soap bubble, made to sparkle and be blocked. Where it is no more is blackness, and where it begins is the core of its brightness. The journey of rays from that central core to the outposts of blackness is the adventure and drama of light.

There are some things which cannot be learned, though they can be studied. Among them are the laws of art—and the lawlessness of it, as well.

A shaft of white light used properly can be far more effective than all the color in the world used indiscriminately.

The only way to succeed is to make people hate you. That way they remember you.

The finished product is not finished when the actor is. The work is completed by a pair of shears.