Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor (27 February 1932 – 23 March 2011) was an American English-born Academy Award winning actress.

• I'm the same as a key piece of machinery in a steel mill, which is needed to make steel and to make money for the mill owners. If I break down, it's their problem. My problem is to build some kind of decent life for myself in this crazy unreal world in which I make my living.
  • As quoted in "The Frail Goddess," The Real and the Unreal (1961) by Bill Davidson, p. 78

• I've been married too many times. How terrible to change children's affiliations, their affections — to give them the insecurity of placing their trust in someone when maybe that someone won't be there next year.
  • Elizabeth Taylor : An informal memoir (1965)

• The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
  • As quoted in The Seven Deadly Sins (2000) by Steven Schwartz, p. 23

• My heart…my mind… are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I can't imagine life without him. We had so much in common and we had such loving fun together.
  • As quoted in "Michael Jackson: Elizabeth Taylor Honors her good friend" by Dave Karger, Entertainment Weekly (26 June 2009)]

• I still can't believe it. I don't want to believe it. It can't be so. He will live in my heart forever but it’s not enough. My life feels so empty. I don't think anyone knew how much we loved each other. The purest most giving love I've ever known.
  • As quoted in "Michael Jackson: Elizabeth Taylor Honors her good friend" by Dave Karger, Entertainment Weekly (26 June 2009)

• Oh God! I'm going to miss him. I can’t yet imagine life without him. But I guess with God’s help... I'll learn. I keep looking at the photo he gave me of himself, which says, 'To my true love Elizabeth, I love you forever.' And, I will love HIM forever.
  • As quoted in "Michael Jackson: Elizabeth Taylor Honors her good friend" by Dave Karger, Entertainment Weekly (26 June 2009)

• I've always admitted that I'm ruled by my passions.
  • As quoted in "Elizabeth Taylor's 20 best quotes" in The Telegraph (23 March 2011)

• You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal.
  • As quoted in "Elizabeth Taylor's 20 best quotes" in The Telegraph (23 March 2011)

• There is no deodorant like success.
  • LIFE (18 Dec 1964) Page 82

• I was with her one Easter in France or Africa and all the animals on the set tried to get into her lap.
  • Lillian Gish, speaking at a tribute staged on May 5, 1986 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center; as quoted in "Film Society Honors Taylor" by Jim Robbins, Variety (May 14, 1986), p. 36

• Really nice girl. I dated her only once.
  • Ralph Kiner, as quoted in "Ralph Kiner attracts Another Sellout Crowd of Autograph-Seekers" by Dan McGibbeny, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (February 13 Feb 1950)

• See what happens? One date with me and Liz ends up engaged to a millionaire.
  • Ralph Kiner, regarding Taylor's engagement—announced two months after her much-publicized 21 Dec 1949 dinner date with Kiner—to Nick Hilton; as quoted in "The Scoreboard" by Les Biederman, The Pittsburgh Press (12 Apr 1950)

• Elizabeth Taylor should get a divorce and settle down.
  • Oscar Levant, as quoted in 3 on a Toothbrush (1965) by Jack Paar, cited in "3 On A Toothbrush — by jack paar" by Ian Glass, The Miami News (April 4, 1965), p. 72
    • A well-worn line that appears to have been coined in 1881, regarding Sarah Bernhardt, in "Amusements This Evening", The Daily Picayune (January 27, 1881), p. 4

• There are three things I never saw Elizabeth do: be on time, tell a lie, be unkind to anyone at all.
  • Mike Nichols, speaking at the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute; op. cit.

• I was less pleased than [my friend] to read Elizabeth Taylor's announcement that she had joined the ranks of the sober. Liz Taylor, whom I'd always cherished as one of the few famous women to barrel down the road of excess with a vengeance-eating, drinking, swearing, fucking, marrying, acquiring diamonds as big as the Ritz…
  • Ellen Willis in No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays (1992)

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Elizabeth Taylor