"I do things people think about doing but haven't the courage."

"Since my life had been wayward and impulsive, always a search for something that is not there and then disillusionment, I believe I need all the excuses I can make."

"I believe it's no exaggeration to say that I have done more for the sweater than the sheep, the silkworm, or the Yale football team."

"Jobs are landed in Hollywood through brains, ability, beauty, talent, hard work, or through a combination of features and figures that stack up to a photogenic accident. I was one of the photogenic accidents."

"I think men are exciting, and the gal who denies that men are exciting is either a lady with no corpuscles or a statue."

"My definition of love is-- believing in dreams."

"No man except possibly Tyrone Power took the time to find out that I was a human being, not just a pretty, shapely little thing. That could have been my fault-- I didn't know myself."

"My plan was to have one husband and seven children but it turned out the other way. I didn't plan seven husbands."

"It was always me who bought the house."

"If you can dance you're all set. If you have that reputation, you're popular."

"The worst thing in the world is to stand still."

"I just want to  be remembered as a sensitive woman who tried to do her job, that's all... I would like to think that in some small way I have helped preserve the glamour and the beauty and the mystery of the movie business."

"Never look back is my philosophy."

"Whoever started the idea that we (stars) are public property? We give the public performances, glamour, and a dream. But we are all human beings, and we should have moments that are our own. If I were just an ordinary working girl and someone asked me some of the questions I've been asked, I'd say, 'Get lost, Buster!' But I just take a deep breath and try to answer. I resent stupid questions, but I can't do anything about the Lana Turner image? I've lived with it too long."

"You know those little toys they have for children, the ones that bounce back when you hit them? That's me."

"There were girls who were prettier, more intelligent and just as talented. Why didn't they make it? It's a question of magic. You either have it or you don't."

"The thing about happiness is that it doesn't help you to grow; only unhappiness does that. So I'm grateful that my bed of roses was made up equally of blossoms and thorns."

"Honeymoon first, and if it lasts, then marriage. I like that."

"Whether someone is straight, gay, or neuter has little to do with employability in my business."

"Getting close isn't enough. They want to count your pores."

"The truth is like surgery, it cuts, but it cures."

"I want a man who has the brains to be satisfied with only me."

"Left to my own devices, I'd starve to death-- I can't boil water."

"How does it happen that something that makes so much sense in the moonlight doesn't make any sense in the sunlight?"

"MGM prepared us for stardom but not for life."

"When you accept God, you're never alone."

"No one I've ever met has more power than Louis B. Mayer, and that includes the president of the United States."

"I have never broken up a home."

"I like the boys, and the boys like me."

"I can't face the day or an audience without vodka."

"I would rather lose a good earring than be caught without make-up."

"I've always loved a challenge."

"Humor has been the balm of my life, but it's been reserved for those close to me, not part of the public Lana."

"The truth is, sex doesn't mean that much to me now. It never did"

"I'm so gullible. I'm so damn gullible. And I am so sick of me being gullible."

"I'm bold and I'm scheming, and sometimes I think I'm not quite nice." (Green Dolphin Street)

"It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies - because you never know when you'll have to work with them."

"Trash is something you get rid of - or disease. I'm not something you get rid of."

"A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man."

"My life has been a series of emergencies."

 

Quotes

"In Hollywood we were like fish swimming around in an aquarium-- always the same fish, but forming different combinations."

 

Videos

 

Quotes

"We could do more with the quiver of a lip or the shrug of a shoulder than all the nude men and women today. It was tintillation. It showed a look of innocence that we never see now."

 

Lou Valentino