20th-century Actress Quotes

We may have doubts, but we control the present. We always have the choice to move forward with hope and confidence.

Fortunately I am not the first person to tell you that you will never die. You simply lose your body. You will be the same except you won't have to worry about rent or mortgages or fashionable clothes. You will be released from sexual obsessions. You will not have drug addictions. You will not need alcohol. You will not have to worry about cellulite or cigarettes or cancer or AIDS or venereal disease. You will be free.

True elegance is for me the manifestation of an independent mind.

Isabella Rossellini

It's not like I let people do things for me, so I guess you can call me a control freak, or you can call me passionate... I'm not a passive person by any stretch of the imagination.

We were never organized readers who would see a book through to its end in any sory of logical order. We weave in and out of words like tourists on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Put a book down in the kitchen to go to the bathroom and you might return to find it gone, replaced by another of equal interest. We are indiscriminate.

It's important for me to find different things and prove I can do them. […] Someone told me that inside all actors are many sleeping princesses, and each time we do a role, one of those princesses wakes up. Inside us there is everything. We just have to look for it.

Monica Bellucci

My grandmother had a picture of herself as a close-lipped, silent, reserved individual without curiosity, who never asked personal questions. Actually, of course, she was a talkative, jolly, interminably curious woman, who loved people, and who enjoyed the personal details of their lives almost as much as they did themselves.

I have been taking stock of my 50 years since I left Wichita. How I have existed fills me with horror for I failed in everything. Spelling, arithmetic, writing, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, singing, acting, wife, mistress, whore, friend, even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of not trying. I tried with all my heart.

After co-star Lauren Bacall had said that Kidman was not an acting legend, but rather a beginner:

I telephoned Lauren and thanked her for saying that. She always calls it like it is and that's a reality check I adore.

We never ever do nothing nice and easy. We always do it nice and rough. Spoken introduction to a recording of "Proud Mary" (1971) I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I am not old yet!

I love to cook. I spend weekends reading cookbooks-it's really my relaxation.

There are times when you come across somebody that's really impressive, someone that's got a proper living and really does make a difference to people's lives. Then I do feel a bit of a wanker, admitting I'm an actress. That's hard to say to someone who may be making a difference. But I don't know how I could change things.

I knew it had the potential to be something special right away. It was like meeting somebody that I've just known where you just recognize one another. It was so disproportionate, the level of emotion we were experiencing to the time we had spent together.

I am afraid it is a non-starter. I cannot even use a bicycle pump.

When asked whether she uses e-mail

Dr Ruth says we women should tell our lovers how to make love to us. My boyfriend goes nuts if I tell him how to drive.

It has been said, "History is written by the victors." I take this to mean we can make ourselves victorious by writing, and then rewriting our own stories. In a country and culture so dominated by media, by the manipulation of words and stories, telling the tales of people whose stories historically have not been told is a radical act and I believe an act that can change the world and help rewrite history.

Comedians on the stage are invariably suicidal when they get home.

Elsa Lanchester

I have never seen daily soaps as I was always more attracted to reality shows, its thrills and adventures. It is sheer luck that I got a chance to be part of this show

The whole of time would not be long enough to tell you of my joy in being married to you. Joy is not measured just by lovely things: the birth of babies, the song of birds heard together, the fun of holidays — the lyrical-love of lying with you. Joy is to be found, too, in the relief after pain shared, in the good news following bad, in the knowledge of greater closeness after disaster.

People believe in you more after you've won an Oscar.

The stage might be the only place I really feel at home. I like the greasepaint, the lights, the romance of it all.

There's something so muffled about the way you experience things. It's as if you were trying to slip through life unchanged.

Kathleen Turner

The greater your capacity to love, the greater your capacity to feel the pain

Jennifer Aniston

Louis B Mayer created a situation that was just like a very big family, but with love and loyalty for everyone.

Kathryn Grayson

Stockholm Syndrome is what it is called when you begin to identify with your captors.... They get nicer every day that they don't kill you.