Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; but now I know it.

I work to stay alive.

Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

Oh, don't let's ask for the moon. We've already got the stars.

I sent my flowers across the hall to Mrs Nixon but her husband remembered what a Democrat I am and sent them back.

An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring... I ought to know.

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 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 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.

Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition.

Gay Liberation? I ain't against it, it's just that there's nothing in it for me.

Wave after wave of love flooded the stage and washed over me, the beginning of the one great durable romance of my life.

Everybody has a heart. Except some people.

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 am just too much.

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.

We movie stars all end up by ourselves. Who knows? Maybe we want to.

With the newspaper strike on, I wouldn't consider dying.

The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can't get work in the movies.

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.

I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.

I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries.

Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I'm afraid it did.

Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone-but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.

My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.

In this business, until you're known as a monster you're not a star.

The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

I never did pal around with actresses. Their talk usually bored me to tears.

This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

I often think that a slightly exposed shoulder emerging from a long satin nightgown packs more sex than two naked bodies in bed.

I will not retire while I've still got my legs and my make-up box.

I survived because I was tougher than anybody else.

Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism.

To look back is to relax one's vigil.

That's me: an old kazoo with some sparklers.

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 have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.

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.

When a man gives his opinion he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion she's a bitch.

It is my last wish to be burried sitting up.

I'd luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.

In this rat-race everybody's guilty till proved innocent!

I was the Marlon Brando of my generation.

Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation.

Strong women only marry weak men.

Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; but now I know it.

Old age is no place for sissies.

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.