Quotes by Alan Ladd

• Just as Jimmy Stewart and Tyrone Power get 50 percent of the profits, so do I.
• I'm working myself to death.
• I've always had a great respect for the picture business. It's been good to me.
• If I had my way, I'd do all my entertaining on the front steps.
• If you can figure out my success on the screen, you're a better man than I.
• It seems only reasonable that the people have a right to know virtually everything about the personality they are buying each time they put their money through the box office.
• It's a funny thing about me. I don't have any interest in food most of the time now, although when I was a kid I was always hungry.
• It's natural to want your kids to have all the things you didn't have.
• Maybe I can't act, but I know the gimmicks. I studied acting all my life and know what's good for me.
• Maybe I thought too much about picking up the money and not enough about the really good parts.
• My parents were so poor when I was a kid, I never went anywhere. I take our youngsters with us because I don't know anything that teaches them so much.
• Nobody's strong enough to stand up under a flood of weak material.
• Not every father gets a chance to start his son off in his own footsteps.
• I'm the most insecure guy in Hollywood. If you had it good all your life, you figure it can't ever get bad, but when you had it bad, you wonder how long a thing like this will last.
• Strangers still leave me self-conscious.
• I think any movie star who refuses autographs has a hell of a nerve.
• Our children were trained to look after each other.
• Being a good host offsets the deprivation and loneliness of my youth.
• As long as my pictures go into theaters and we ask people to pay to see what I do on the screen, I should not object if customers want to know what kind of man I am.
• I don't care how small the parts are, as long as they're good.
• I had only that one picture, Hitler, the Beast of Berlin, in which I had a part big enough to impress anyone. I tried for better roles over and over again.
• I hear about stars being torn to pieces by fans. It never happened to me and I never saw it happen to anyone else.
• I just want to make pictures that are entertaining. I'll leave the scenery chewing to someone else.
• I know what's good for me. I can't play black or gray. I can't be a villain or anything close to one. I have to play white.
• I was never trained for anything.
• I never fail to feel let down when I see myself on the screen.
• I'm shy and can't for the life of me barge around and slap people on the back. I sit in a corner by myself and am tickled to death when someone comes over to talk to me.
• I was a dummy in school.
• Time scoots along pretty fast when you grow up.
• I wish I were the type who could walk into a place and have everybody love me. But I'm not, and there's no use wishing.
• I'd rather be David Ladd's father than Alan Ladd any day.
• I'm going to make it. Nothing is going to stop me. Nothing. I want it too much.
• I'm no good with words but I'll find ways from time to time to show you how grateful I am.
• I learned more about acting from George Stevens in a few months than I had in my entire life up until then.
• When I was on the air a lot my throat and vocal chords got tired. If you don't vary your tones you can't get pretty tired of your own voice.
• A producer has to know all about everything from set-building to costumes to acting.
• What good will a tax break do me if I'm crippled for life?