[on her pre-Cecil B. DeMille years as a comedienne working for Mack Sennett] I played my comedies li...
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[on her pre-Cecil B. DeMille years as a comedienne working for Mack Sennett] I played my comedies like Duse [serious classical actress Eleonora Duse], which is probably why I was so funny.
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Two of the more trivial topics I never discuss are my marriage [of three weeks] to Wallace Beery and...
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Two of the more trivial topics I never discuss are my marriage [of three weeks] to Wallace Beery and those frozen dinners which have become famous with my name on them.
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As Daddy said, life is 95 percent anticipation.
As Daddy said, life is 95 percent anticipation.
[on being transported by police through a mob of fans to the premiere of The Trespasser (1929)] As I...
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[on being transported by police through a mob of fans to the premiere of The Trespasser (1929)] As I felt my feet leave the ground, I could tell that someone behind me was standing on my train, so I screamed for one of the horsemen to pick it up. I was now completely horizontal, face down, like a battering ram, and that is the way they carried me through the crowd and into the theater lobby.
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I've given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can't divorce a book.
I've given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can't divorce a book.
I think all this talk about age is foolish. Every time I'm one year older, everyone else is too.
I think all this talk about age is foolish. Every time I'm one year older, everyone else is too.
[during the first screening of The Impossible Mrs. Bellew (1922)} Did we make that on location or in...
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[during the first screening of The Impossible Mrs. Bellew (1922)} Did we make that on location or in the studio?
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When I die, my epitaph should read "She Paid the Bills". That's the story of my private life.
When I die, my epitaph should read "She Paid the Bills". That's the story of my private life.
Hollywood has called me in turn "The Clothes Horse", "The Old Grey Mare"--and "Death of a Saleswoman...
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Hollywood has called me in turn "The Clothes Horse", "The Old Grey Mare"--and "Death of a Saleswoman". Since my comeback in Sunset Blvd. (1950), I'm glad to say they've thought up a new title: "Gloss".
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All they had to do was put my name on a marquee and watch the money roll in.
All they had to do was put my name on a marquee and watch the money roll in.
Under God we became the freest, strongest, wealthiest nation on earth. Should we change that?
Under God we became the freest, strongest, wealthiest nation on earth. Should we change that?
[on Marlene Dietrich] Her legs may be longer than mine, but unlike me, she doesn't have 7 grandchild...
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[on Marlene Dietrich] Her legs may be longer than mine, but unlike me, she doesn't have 7 grandchildren.
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I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment a star.
I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment a star.
At 26, I felt myself a victim rather than a victor in the realm of pictures.
At 26, I felt myself a victim rather than a victor in the realm of pictures.
I haven't a very great sense of humor. When I see a comedy I laugh with the others. I'm sufficiently...
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I haven't a very great sense of humor. When I see a comedy I laugh with the others. I'm sufficiently amused, but when it's over I have a feeling that I am not taking anything away with me. I don't think that comedy, unless it has a great deal of irony in it, corresponds to anything in life. It makes me feel vacant - just as though I had gone to a restaurant hungry and come away without eating.
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After seven years in one place, not to mention two marriages and 32 pictures, I felt I had earned a ...
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After seven years in one place, not to mention two marriages and 32 pictures, I felt I had earned a vacation.
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It's amazing to find that so many people, who I thought really knew me, could have thought that Suns...
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It's amazing to find that so many people, who I thought really knew me, could have thought that Sunset Blvd. (1950) was autobiographical. I've got nobody floating in my swimming pool.
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[on Erich von Stroheim] The experience of working with him was unlike any I had had in more than 50 ...
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[on Erich von Stroheim] The experience of working with him was unlike any I had had in more than 50 pictures. He was so painstaking and slow that I would lose all sense of time, hypnotized by the man's relentless perfectionism.
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[on her role in Airport 1975 (1974)] I was holding out for a picture I could take my grandchildren t...
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[on her role in Airport 1975 (1974)] I was holding out for a picture I could take my grandchildren to see, something exciting and contemporary without senseless violence.
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After 16 years in pictures I could not be intimidated easily, because I knew where all the skeletons...
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After 16 years in pictures I could not be intimidated easily, because I knew where all the skeletons were buried.
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[on showing pictures of herself] You notice there are NO bathing beauty scenes? And I'll tell you wh...
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[on showing pictures of herself] You notice there are NO bathing beauty scenes? And I'll tell you why: I was never a Sennet bathing beauty. Those glossies that sometimes turn up were publicity stills that I unfortunately made as a favor when I had a free hour. And I've paid for it all of my life.
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They won't ever let me forget Sunset Blvd. (1950). Maybe I shouldn't have done it. These people who ...
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They won't ever let me forget Sunset Blvd. (1950). Maybe I shouldn't have done it. These people who watch the film now never heard of me. They weren't alive when I did silent films. They think I was Norma Desmond, and I keep telling them Norma Desmond was a creation, not a real character. I NEVER was Norma Desmond, and I don't know anyone who lived like that!
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After years of negotiating, I felt bitter and resentful about Mr. Lasky [Jesse L. Lasky] and Paramou...
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After years of negotiating, I felt bitter and resentful about Mr. Lasky [Jesse L. Lasky] and Paramount and I knew I always would.
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[In a 1965 interview with DeWitt Bodeen] The public didn't want the truth, and I shouldn't have both...
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[In a 1965 interview with DeWitt Bodeen] The public didn't want the truth, and I shouldn't have bothered to give it to them. In those days they wanted us to live like kings. So we did--and why not? We were in love with life. We were making more money than we ever dreamed existed, and there was no reason to believe it would ever stop.
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By the time I was 15, my mother had turned me into a real clotheshorse.
By the time I was 15, my mother had turned me into a real clotheshorse.
A crisis arose when several newspapers questioned whether my singing voice was real. I had not sung-...
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A crisis arose when several newspapers questioned whether my singing voice was real. I had not sung--they wanted to know why.
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[To her mother following her triumphant return to Hollywood in 1924 after making Madame Sans-Gê...
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[To her mother following her triumphant return to Hollywood in 1924 after making Madame Sans-Gêne (1925) in France] It's the saddest night of my life. I'm just 26. Where do I go from here?
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All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year.
All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year.
[In 1922] I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I...
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[In 1922] I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it.
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Every victory is also a defeat.
Every victory is also a defeat.
