Quotes

[joking reference to her husband, Hume Cronyn] When he's late for dinner, I know he's either having an affair or is lying dead in the street, I always hope it's the street.

I must say, if I had known at the beginning of my life that this is where I would get to, I would have said, "Not possible. Not possible."

I'm most comfortable on the stage. Because of the nature of film and television, you'll very often do the climactic scene on the first day and the other parts weeks later. It's hard to remember exactly what state you were in. It's easier when you start at the beginning and go through to the end. Any new project, new play, new film, you're really starting from square one every time. You can't be sure enough of yourself to say, "Well, this is just a piece of cake." It's not like that at all -- not for me.

Anything in your life that can parallel something in the life of a character that you're playing is of great value because you can really feel all of those things and know what it would be like.

[1950] Jack Hawkins is a wonderful actor, but a rotten husband!

[About her contract with Fox in the 40s] I think things were much more stereotyped then. You either were a sex symbol, or a beautiful woman, which I wasn't, or you got the dregs of the parts, not the interesting ones. I'd been playing large parts in the theater for a long time, being the whole cheese in a lot of plays, and I wanted to do more in films than I was offered. But Hume was working out there, and so we were living there, and because I like working, I signed the contract.