How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Citizen Cane.
Quote #1
NARRATOR: Denver's Bonfils and Sommes; New York's late, great Joseph Pulitzer; America's emperor of the news syndicate, another editorialist and landlord, the still mighty and once mightier Hearst. Great names all of them—but none of them so loved, hated, feared, so often spoken—as Charles Foster Kane.
As the narrator tells us, there are many great wealthy men in America. But none of them provokes so much love and hate as Charles Foster Kane. If it was Kane's mission to be spoken about, he succeeded. Unfortunately, his mission was to be loved—but he ended up making just as many enemies as he did friends.
Quote #2
RAWLSTON: Here's a man who might have been President. He's been loved and hated and talked about as much as any man in our time—
As the newsreel director says, Charles Kane could have been president at one time. But he messed it all up just like so many mighty men have throughout history. One of his biggest problems, of course, was assuming that people would love him if he threw a lot of money around and tried to help the "working man."
Quote #3
RAWLSTON: That manager of his—the little guy, Bernstein, those two wives, all the people who knew him, had worked for him, who loved him, who hated his guts—
As Rawlston tells us, there were a lot of people who were close to Kane and were supposed to love him. But things didn't work out that way in the end, because as he got older, Kane got a lot tougher to be around.