They weren’t interested in entertainment. They were tough. I learned one trick, which was to be quieter than they were until they had to look at you. It took a lot of agressiveness.

It’s tough when take 1 is technically okay and take 2 has better acting. Out here (Hollywood) they print the first one. That’s the one where we all hit the mark on the floor and who cares about the acting.

I’m trying to eliminate every vestige of my own personality, style, approach and get into somebody else’s skin. Sometimes I feel I’ve accomplished it. But when I don’t, I’m nobody at all, having left myself at home.

Now with all this movie business, everybody’s coming around wanting to know everything that’s happened since I was four. It’s like going to an analyst.

I suppose that if I could have quit, I would have, because in those days I never wanted to be an actress, the acting was something to do while I waited for a chance to study writing and directing. But I guess I was just meant to be an actress. Because, here I am.

Acting is a very limited form of expression and those who take it seriously are very limited people. I take it seriously.

He didn’t maintain my illusion of myself, he gave me an illusion of myself. Before I met him, I never thought of myself as an actress. Boy, he sidetracked me in a great way!

We were wavering around like a ship without a sail.

When they thought of me, they always remembered the vacuous Billie Dawn. It was as simple as that.

Nobody can give a good performance unless the authors and composers have written a good part, a fact which is often overlooked.

Of course I work hard. Why shouldn’t I? Who am I to think I should get things the easy way?

I’ve always loved words. I ate up all the books I could get my hands on, and when I couldn’t get books, I read candy wrappers and labels on cereal and toothpaste boxes.

They weren’t interested in entertainment. They were tough. I learned one trick, which was to be quieter than they were until they had to look at you. It took a lot of agressiveness.

I was bargaining for time away from Hollywood, and Columbia was bargaining for money. I got what I wanted and they got what they wanted. They knew I was so anxious to do Born Yesterday that I’d have done it for a dollar. They gave me the next best thing.

I think Billie is the kind of girl who would let her hips swing loose.

I’m a born and bred New Yorker. I belong here. Everytime I leave it’s like losing a leg.

You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over again and keep the audience’s attention without extraordinary physical equipment.

Lovers have a right to betray you… friends don’t.

I am not a member of any organization listed by the Attorney General as subversive. In any instance where I lent my name in the past, it was certainly without knowledge that such an organization was subversive. I have always been essentially and foremost an American.

I thought I was learning about show business. The more painful it was, the more important I thought the experience must be. Hating it, I convinced myself it must be invaluable.

I am not an ‘instant’ actor… to really do anything, I’ve got to try it five or six or a dozen times.

I want a part where I can use my own hair, my own voice, and maybe even be literate.

The only actress they didn’t test was Garbo. Must have been her accent.

I could talk about him all day. He’s one of the most wonderful things that ever happened to me.

I hated the whole idea of being an actress. I used to throw up before every performance and cry afterward.

If you can handle a nightclub audience successfully, you can handle anything.

People have a hard time making me dress up to look like a classy gal.

It meant as much to me as winning the Oscar.

We gained a great deal of prestige, but not much money. We liked to work so much we couldn’t hide it and the club owners paid us accordingly.

I get very nervous whenever I think about it. I’ve never done a serious play, and I have such awe of the woman – she’s really my only idol. It’s going to be a big stretch – certain people come out on stage and your face muscles automatically tense and you get ready to smile.