Bette Davis Quotes (83 Quotes)

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

Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.

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

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.

If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent.

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

At 50, I thought proudly Here we are, half century Being 60 was fairly frightening. You want to know how I spent my 70th birthday I put on a completely black face, a fuzzy black Afro wig, wore black clothes and hung a black wreath on my door.

First time was when I was 26 and got married - and it was hell waiting.

Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies.

Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child. He needs guidance. If there is love, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child.

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

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

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.

A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else.

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

Good actors I've worked with all started out making faces in a mirror, and you keep making faces all your life.

To look back is to relax one's vigil.

The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead.

People often become actresses because of something they dislike about themselves: They pretend they are someone else.

Strong women only marry weak men.

My darling,it is late and I am very tired of youth,love,and self-sacrafice.

Never, never trust anyone who asks for white wine. It means they're phonies.

I will never be below the title.

I don't think of myself as a character actress - that's become a phrase which means you've had it.

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.

Three years ago I was forty... forty Four-oh That slipped out. Now I suddenly feel as if I've taken all my clothes off.

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.

Everybody has a heart. Except some people.

She did it the hard way.

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.

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

Oh, I'm rather fond of him that way. It shows that deep down he's a fake. -on her graying 1935 Oscar for Jezebel.

I am just too much.

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

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

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

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

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.

On the death of Joan Crawford'My mother told me never to speak badly of the dead. She's dead....Good

I wouldn't worry too much about your heart. You can always put that award where your heart ought to be.

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

I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived.

I survived because I was tougher than anybody else.

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

I was never beautiful like Miss Hayworth or Miss Lamarr. I was known as the little brown wren. Who'd want to get me at the end of the picture

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.

If my guests do not like it here, I suggest they accompany you to the nursery... where I am sure you will all feel more at home.

The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone's concern and like vampires they suck our life's blood.

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

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