"Most women have a special sexual fantasy. Mine was to make love on a bed covered with gardenias."

"If I am representative of those who share my astrological sign, Aries women are the most romantic fools that ever walked the earth."

"There's no doubt about it, a girl's first exposure to sex is a powerful drug."

"I realize I was always in love with "being in love," seldom really in love."

"I see - she's the original good time that was had by all." (on Joan Crawford)

"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."

"I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries."

"I’m the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived."

"An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring… I ought to know."

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

"I wanted to be the first to win three Oscars, but Miss Hepburn has done it. Actually it hasn’t been done. Miss Hepburn only won half an Oscar. If they’d given me half an Oscar I would have thrown it back in their faces. You see, I’m an Aries. I never lose."

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

"Old age is no place for sissies."

"I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oft-times disagreeable ... I suppose I'm larger than life."

"Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work."

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

"I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year."

"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."

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

"She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie." (on Joan Crawford)

"Gary was a macho man, but none of my husbands was ever man enough to become Mr Bette Davis." (on Gary Merrill, her fourth husband)

"I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it."

"Sex. God's biggest joke on human beings."

"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."

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

"Hollywood's first case of syphilis, I wouldn' t sit on her toilet." (on Joan Crawford)

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

"I was the Marlon Brando of my generation."

"I start Bette Davis In Person shows with film clips ending with the 'Fasten your seat-belts' line from All About Eve. Then, I come on stage, light a cigarette, look around and say 'What - a - dump!' Really breaks the ice - people laugh and relax instead of having to revere me."

"I will never be below the title."

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

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

"Locations are all tough, all miserable. I never left the sound stage for 18 years at Warners. We never went outside the studio, not even for big scenes."

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

"I believe God helps those who help themselves."

"I was never very interested in boys - and there were plenty of them - vying with one another to see how many famous women they would get into the hay."

"I work to stay alive."

"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."

"I've always liked men better than women."

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

"Strong women only marry weak men."

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

 

Collection

 

Academy Award nominations

 

CDs