Great Throughts Treasury

"I want the world to see my body."

"I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity, and that includes all kinds of parts."

"I want to be an artist, not an erotic freak. I don?t want to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrodisiac."

"I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made."

"I want to grow old without facelifts... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I've made. Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know you."

"I wanted to ask a thousand questions, but there was no one to ask. Besides i knew that people only told lies to children-lies about everything from soup to Santa Claus."

"I wanted to be treated as a human being who had earned a few rights since her orphanage days."

"I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy."

"I was never told what to read, and nobody ever gave me anything to read. You know -- the way there are certain books that everybody reads while they're growing up? . . . So what I do is -- nights when I've got nothing else to do I go to the Pickwick bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard. And I just open books at random -- or when I come to a page or a paragraph I like, I buy that book. So last night I bought this one. Is that wrong?"

"I watched the faces of the listeners when the minister would cry out how much God loved them and how much they needed to set themselves right with God. They were faces without any argument in them, just tired faces that were glad to hear Somebody loved them."

"I wish I knew why I am so anguished."

"I won't be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn't mean I want them to stop looking."

"I would have told her then she was the only thing that I could love in this dying world but the simple word love itself already died and went away."

"I?m a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they?ve made of me?and that I?ve made of myself?as a sex symbol. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman?s and i can?t live up to it"

"I?m for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It?s really tragic."

"I?m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, i am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can?t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don?t deserve me at my best."

"I?m trying to find the nail-head, not just strike the blow."

"I?m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it."

"I?ve been on a calendar, but never on time."

"I?ve given pure sex appeal very little thought. If I had to think about it I?m sure it would frighten me."

"I?ve never fooled anyone. I?ve let people fool themselves. They didn?t bother to find out who and what i was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn?t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn?t."

"I?ve often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people."

"If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened - as if somebody was trying to demote them."

"If fame goes by, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live."

"If I play a stupid girl and ask a stupid question I've got to follow it through. What am I supposed to do -- look intelligent?"

"If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere."

"If I'm a star, then the people made me a star."

"If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it's that I've never been a kept woman."

"If you can make a girl laugh ? you can make her do anything."

"If you can?t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don?t deserve me at my best."

"If you spend your life competing with business men, what do you have? A bank account and ulcers!"

"If your man is a sports enthusiast, you may have to resign yourself to his spouting off in a monotone on a prize fight, football game or pennant race."

"If you're gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty."

"I'll think I have a few wonderful friends and all of a sudden, ooh, here it comes. They do a lot of things. They talk about you to the press, to their friends, tell stories, and you know, it's disappointing."

"I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they've made of me ? and that I've made of myself ? as a sex symbol. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman's and I can't live up to it."

"I'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic."

"I'm looking forward to becoming a marvelous - excuse the word marvelous - character actress. like Marie Dressler, like Will Rogers."

"I'm not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful."

"I'm one of the world's most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle."

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

"I'm trying to find myself as a person, sometimes that's not easy to do. Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do. The best way for me to find myself as a person is to prove to myself that I am an actress."

"I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it."

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

"In fact, my popularity seems almost entirely a masculine phenomenon."

"In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are. Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty."

"In Rockford I decided that I had seen enough of the world."

"In spite of everything life is not without hope."

"It is wonderful to have someone praise you, to be desired."

"It might be a kind of relief to be finished. You have to start all over again. But I believe you?re always as good as your potential. I now live in my work and in a few relationships with the few people I can really count on. Fame will go by, and, so long, I?ve had you fame. If it goes by, I?ve always known it was fickle. So at least it?s something I experienced, but that?s not where I live."

"It stirs up envy, fame does."