Quotes

Actors and actresses who say they never go to see their own pictures are talking through their hats. You don't have to be a [Sigmund Freud] to know that the most fascinating person in the world - actors or anybody - is yourself.

I lived in Hollywood long enough to learn to play tennis and become a star, but I never felt it was my home. I was never looking for a home, as a matter of fact.

You live in the present and you eliminate things that don't matter. You don't carry the burden of the past. I'm not impressed by the past very much. The past bores me, to tell you the truth; it really bores me. I don't remember many movies and certainly not my own.

[Referring first to Jean Renoir and obliquely to [Charles Chaplin) . . . an amazing man. He likes actors, and situations, and insists on telling a story. This is so unlike most directors who like only other directors . . . one director--you know who I mean."

[Referring to paintings and fine art) I don't like collecting anything I can't pack.

{Referring to husband Erich Maria Remarque) We get along very well, I must say. I'm gregarious, and he's sedentary; it works out fine.

Leave yourself alone as much as possible. Don't worry. I never do. I'm too busy remembering things.

I was quite poor to begin with. But I think a background of poverty is good. You can always go back to living on $20 a week. You feel like a bandit when you take the good things in life.

I love doing TV. It's such a breakneck pace you know. It's kiss and go with your leading man. You meet them in the morning and go right into a clinch. The filming is over before you know their last names.

I think everybody at the studio thought I had a boy friend who owned a garage because I used to go to work every morning in such big cars. Actually, you see, I was financially independent, and my passion was automobiles. I had three of them, all shiny and expensive.

Life was easy as a blonde. I didn't have to think, I didn't have to talk. All I had to do was waltz around.

I am not temperamental. I just know what I want and if I don't have it, I try to get it.

[at the opening of Carol Channing's "Lorelei"] Men no longer prefer blondes; today, gentlemen seem to prefer gentlemen.

I'm always slightly embarrassed to meet other actresses of my vintage. We have so little in common. They're all so dedicated. I find - so desperate.

Nobody onscreen fascinates me as much as Paulette Goddard. I'm probably her greatest fan , bar none. I see my own pictures six or seven times. I also take in my own pictures to see what I do wrong or what I do right.

[on losing the role of Scarlett O'Hara] I'll show 'em!

[on Charles Chaplin] He asked to call on Mother and me, and began to take me out. I was thrilled and delighted at his attentions, of course. And then, one night he said, "I am writing a screen play for you." And he was. It was Modern Times (1936).

He wrote four scripts - four complete scripts for me - and destroyed them every one! He wasn't satisfied with them, he said. And so, I broke my contract with him and signed with Selznick for The Young in Heart (1938).

I never tell my age. It doesn't do in a theatrical career. I always say that if a woman will tell her age, she will tell anything!

If I am to play an English part in an English film, I want to acquire the English accent. I think I can best do that by wandering 'round London listening to conversations.

[1972] While I was married to Eric I never made a decision. That's why I'm so easy to get along with. I miss having someone to make those decisions. Also, I've never planned ahead. Right now the future doesn't concern me. I'll just do what comes to mind at the time.

[1939] I was terribly disappointed at the time, but now I am glad I shan't be Scarlett [in Gone with the Wind (1939)]. You see, if I had succeeded, I should probably never have been able to duplicate my performance with a subsequent success. And if I had failed - well, I don't like to think about that, either! And so, honestly, cross-my-heart, I am glad it all turned out the way it did. Miss Leigh is an established actress, and no matter how her Scarlett turns out, she can go on. But it might have finished me!

[on The Female Instinct (1972)] It turned out to be interesting, but I won't do any more acting.

[on The Female Instinct (1972)] I really didn't want to do it. But Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick tempted me. You can't ask for better company in a movie than that.

[on her 1972 comeback, on television] I was surprised how easy it was for me now because I'm detached. It isn't a life or death situation. I was relaxed. The minute the lights went on I walked straight to my mark. I must have been well trained.

[1972] This summer I'll go back to our home in Switzerland. It's in the tiny village of Porto Ronco on the shores of Laga Maggiore. I sometimes water ski across the lake to have lunch on the Italian shore.