48 Quotes by Bette Davis
- Psychoanalysis. Almost went three times - almost. Then I decided what was peculiar about me was probably what made me successful. I've seen some very talented actors go into analysis and really lose it.
- People often become actresses because of something they dislike about themselves: They pretend they are someone else.
- Old age is no place for sissies.
- Oh, don't let's ask for the moon. We've already got the stars.
- My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.
- Men become much more attractive when they start looking older. But it doesn't do much for women, though we do have an advantage: make-up.
- Locations are all tough, all miserable. I never left the sound stage for 18 years at Warners. We never went outside the studio, not even for big scenes.
- It is my last wish to be burried sitting up.
- In this business, until you're known as a monster you're not a star.
- In this rat-race everybody's guilty till proved innocent!
- Sex is God's joke on human beings.
- Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone-but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.
- Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation.
- With the newspaper strike on, I wouldn't consider dying.
- Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies.
- I will never be below the title.
- We movie stars all end up by ourselves. Who knows? Maybe we want to.
- I've lost my faith in science.
- To look back is to relax one's vigil.
- This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.
- There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.
- The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can't get work in the movies.
- That's me: an old kazoo with some sparklers.
- Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition.
- An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring... I ought to know.
- Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.
- Basically, I believe the world is a jungle, and if it's not a bit of a jungle in the home, a child cannot possibly be fit to enter the outside world.
- I work to stay alive.
- Everybody has a heart. Except some people.
- I've always liked men better than women.
- Gay Liberation? I ain't against it, it's just that there's nothing in it for me.
- Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism.
- I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.
- I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn't dare to make an enemy should get out of the business.
- I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived.
- Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I'm afraid it did.
- I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.
- I'd luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.
- I will not retire while I've still got my legs and my make-up box.
- I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries.
- I was the Marlon Brando of my generation.
- I survived because I was tougher than anybody else.
- I sent my flowers across the hall to Mrs Nixon but her husband remembered what a Democrat I am and sent them back.
- I often think that a slightly exposed shoulder emerging from a long satin nightgown packs more sex than two naked bodies in bed.
- I never did pal around with actresses. Their talk usually bored me to tears.
- I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.
- I don't think of myself as a character actress - that's become a phrase which means you've had it.
- I was never very interested in boys - and there were plenty of them - vying with one another to see how many famous women they would get into the hay.
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