Orson Welles Quotes: 10 Of The Filmmaker's Funniest And Best Sayings

Wednesday marks the 100^th anniversary of the birth of actor, director, writer and director Orson Welles. The multitalented star was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and died at age 70 in Los Angeles. Welles was known for his popular work in theater, radio and film, and his 1941 drama “Citizen Kane” is still consistently ranked as one of the greatest films of all time.

Welles was known for his imagination, creativity and somewhat self-deprecating sense of humor. Check out some of our favorite quotes from the director below:

"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone."

"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."

"Create your own visual style ... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others."

"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends."

"Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and the Muppets would take seats in senate."

"Everything about me is a contradiction, and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There's a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.

"I've spent most of my mature life trying to prove that I'm not irresponsible."

"Everybody denies I am a genius -- but nobody ever called me one!"

"When you are down and out something always turns up -- and it is usually the noses of your friends."

"I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts."