"Clifford had aspired to like his idol Paul Klee to take a world already broken and to put it together.”

--News Bulletin, Dec 26, 1952

"Clifford wanted to be bold, be Clifford Odets and lecture the committee, chastise them; he didn’t need the communist party to tell him poverty was a bad thing. Clifford figured he would play for an inside straight, he always liked betting against the house, and he would carve out a space for progressive thought neither subjugated to the Party nor sycophantic to the committee.”

--Why Give Testimony, Kazan

"Without waiting for a response, she shifted to a more upbeat tone and said in that Tallulah way, "if he’s not buried by New Year’s Day do bring the corpse to my little party. What type of New York party would it be without Clifford Odets?”

--Obituary, 1935

"Clifford continues, the ghost looking more and more like Bromberg puts a gentle hand on my shoulder as he looks into the core of my being and weeps, then laments.”

--Kazan tells Clifford his dream about Bromberg