Quotes

[on touring, pre-Hollywood, with 'Hellzapoppin'] It was really hellzapoppin all the time. For a year and a half we traveled from coast to coast. During one stretch we made sixty-four one-night stands in succession. It got so we weren't conscious of what town we were playing in. Just sixty-four days of haze. We were congenial and jolly except when we were dead for lack of sleep. But in such close intimacy there was no privacy. My dream then, my joy now, is to be alone - to lock my apartment door and not even answer the phone.

The privilege of being a screen actor is having the opportunity of seeing yourself as others see you. Believe me, it is very traumatic. When I saw myself, I thought 'Get a train ticket and leave'.

I'm tired of that smart New York set who blast Hollywood, calling it an intellectual void. Plenty of silly things are done here, but Hollywood isn't so very screwball. They do fine things in the theatre and splendid things out here too. Baddies crop up on both coasts. I dislike it when critics sell Hollywood short.

When you say ambition to me - that's when you get me started! My greatest ambition is to be the whoppingest best actress in Hollywood. You can't blame a girl for trying! I don't want to be classed as a 'personality'. Something to stare at. I want to have my talents respected, not only by the public but by myself.

There's no point putting your heart and soul into a part when you know in advance it isn't worth the trouble. I'm not speaking as a dedicated actress. Enthusiasm and hard work are requisites for any job a person undertakes. I tried working just for money once and it made me almost physically ill.

I don't turn in my automobile for a new one every year. I have one which pleases me, in the medium price bracket, and I intend to keep it five years.

Love is a deep affinity, a feeling of great happiness and warmth between a man and a woman.

As for me, if a man looks particularly well, I tell him so. I don't add that his suit needs pressing. His face looks fine, so I say so and that's honest and it pleases him. There's no point in adding the bit about the suit. That's where honesty spills over into frankness - which, after all, is criticism that can hurt a person's feelings.

I've always hated cliches or pat phrases in speech and I see no reason for subscribing to any given patois. Why should the same adjectives be used again and again?

They say cleanliness is next to godliness, so keeping yourself and the place where you live scrupulously clean is a sort of honest thank-you for the good things God gives you.

I must admit that I've always loved to read, have always been fascinated by words, wanted to read books which introduced me to new, beautiful words.

I never thought I was pretty. I would always say, "Lizabeth, you're interesting. But you're not pretty."

I had crushes on a number of my leading men. I mean, you just do automatically for some damn reason. You go home and you think about them.

You know, I loved making film. There was something so exciting about it because I fell in love with the lens, and the lens fell in love with me. . . I don't know how it happened. A lot of Broadway actors would say, "I never want to work in Hollywood. . . I can't cope with it." But there was something about that lens that I adored, and it adored me back. So we were a great combination.

[on Barbara Stanwyck] I would go on the set [of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)] and watch her and she was just outstanding. She was a great actress, really.