Bette Davis QuotesUntil you're known in my profession as a monster, you're not a star. Beautiful never. Striking, sometimes, if I'm lucky! I act larger than life; that's what my audience paid me for all these years. If they wanted ordinary reality they'd go out and talk with their grocer! Tension breeds creativity! Relaxation and conviviality breeds mediocrity! We all carry some variety of infirmity or sorrow with us -- let's treat each other kindly. None of us is getting out of our human condition alive! Most women have a special sexual fantasy. Mine was to make love on a bed covered with gardenias. If I am representative of those who share my astrological sign, Aries women are the most romantic fools that ever walked the earth. There's no doubt about it, a girl's first exposure to sex is a powerful drug. I realize I was always in love with being in love, seldom really in love. I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries. I’m the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived. An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring… I ought to know. I never did pal around with actresses. Their talk usually bored me to tears. I wanted to be the first to win three Oscars, but Miss Hepburn has done it. Actually it hasn’t been done. Miss Hepburn only won half an Oscar. If they’d given me half an Oscar I would have thrown it back in their faces. You see, I’m an Aries. I never lose. Gay Liberation? I ain’t against it, it’s just that there’s nothing in it for me. I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oft-times disagreeable ... I suppose I'm larger than life. Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work. With the newspaper strike on, I wouldn't consider dying. I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year. From the moment I was six I felt sexy. And let me tell you it was hell, sheer hell, waiting to do something about it. I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache. Gary was a macho man, but none of my husbands was ever man enough to become Mr Bette Davis. -- on Gary Merrill, her fourth husband. Sex. God's biggest joke on human beings. At 50, I thought proudly: Here we are, half century! Being 60 was fairly frightening. You want to know how I spent my 70th birthday? I put on a completely black face, a fuzzy black Afro wig, wore black clothes and hung a black wreath on my door. Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life. The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can't get work in the movies. I was the Marlon Brando of my generation. I start Bette Davis In Person shows with film clips ending with the 'Fasten your seat-belts' line from All About Eve. Then, I come on stage, light a cigarette, look around and say 'What - a - dump!' Really breaks the ice - people laugh and relax instead of having to revere me. I will never be below the title. First time was when I was 26 and got married - and it was hell waiting. I don't think of myself as a character actress - that's become a phrase which means you've had it. 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. 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. I was never beautiful like Miss Hayworth or Miss Lamarr. I was known as the little brown wren. Who'd want to get me at the end of the picture? I will not retire while I've still got my legs and my make-up box. I believe God helps those who help themselves. 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. I work to stay alive. 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. I've always liked men better than women. To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given the chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. Strong women only marry weak men. Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition. Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you're not a star. If you want a thing well done, get a couple of old broads to do it. The male ego with few exceptions is elephantine to start with. Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone - but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding. Success only breeds a new goal. There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen. I would advise any woman against having an affair with a married man believing he will ever leave his wife, no matter how often he says his wife does not understand him. Love is not as necessary to a man's happiness as it is to a woman's. If her marriage is satisfactory, a woman will seldom stray. A man can be totally contented and still be out howling at the moon. If Hollywood didn't work out, I was prepared to be the best secretary in the world. We movie stars all end up by ourselves. Who knows? Maybe we want to. We're all busy little bees, full of stings, making honey day and night, aren't we honey? Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation. You know what I'm going to have on my gravestone? 'She did it the hard way.' You should know me well enough by now to know I don't ask for things I don't think I can get. My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose. People often become actresses because of something they dislike about themselves: They pretend they are someone else. This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work. I think I'll have a large order of prognosis negative. I wouldn't worry too much about your heart. You can always put that award where your heart ought to be. Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child. He needs guidance. If there is love, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child. A parent must also not be afraid to hang himself. If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent. 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. I am just too much. You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is
dead. Good. |