Lauren Bacall Quotes

1. I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.


2. You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what's happening now.

3. I am essentially a loner.

4. Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.

5. A man's illness is his private territory and, no matter how much he loves you and how close you are, you stay an outsider. You are healthy.

6. A woman isn't complete without a man. But where do you find a man - a real man - these days?

7. I figure if I have my health, can pay the rent and I have my friends, I call it "content."

8. I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look.



9. I am not a has-been. I am a will be.

10. Find me a man who's interesting enough to have dinner with and I'll be happy.

11. In Hollywood, an equitable divorce settlement means each party getting fifty percent of publicity.

12. They're guys who want to screw around all the time, which interests me not at all. God knows we've done that, been there, and we don't want to do that any more.

13. I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing.

14. Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life.

15. Stardom isn't a profession; it's an accident.

16. I'm not a sedentary person. I've always been active.

17. I don't sit around thinking that I'd like to have another husband; only another man would make me think that way.

18. Generally women are better than men - they have more character. I prefer men for some things, obviously, but women have a greater sense of honor and are more willing to take a chance with their lives.

19. People should tell your children what life is all about - it's about work.

20. When a woman reaches twenty-six in America, she's on the slide. It's downhill all the way from then on. It doesn't give you a tremendous feeling of confidence and well-being.

21. She's not a legend, ... She can't be a legend at whatever age she is. ... You have to be older.

22. I'm not the public.

23. The purity of Jewish upbringing is the restrictions that one carries through life being a "nice Jewish girl" - what a burden!

24. I have a built-in antenna.

25. Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.

26. I’m not ashamed of what I am - of how I pass through this life. What I am has given me the strength to do it. At my lowest ebb I have never contemplated suicide. I value what is here too much. I have a contribution to make. I am not just take up space in this life. I can add something to the lives I touch. I don’t like everything I know about myself, and I’ll never be satisfied, but nobody’s perfect. I’m not sure where the next years will take me - what they will hold - but I’m open to suggestions.

27. You don’t always win your battles, but it’s good to know you fought.

28. To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.

29. I'd like to meet the man who decided that people do or don't look Jewish. What the hell does that mean anyway? Is it the American penchant for pinning things down, catergorizing, for pigeonholing people? Whatever it is, it's wrong.

30. He (Bogie) had tremendous character and a great sense of honor and would not tolerate lies, even if they asked him what he thought of a movie. We were once at a screening at somebody's house, I forget whose, and they ran a movie that he was in, that he never thought much of. Afterward, the producer asked what he thought of it, and Bogie said: "I think it's a crock." And this producer was horrified! He was about to release the movie, and he said to Bogie "Why would you say that?!" Bogie shrugged and said "Then don’t ask me." He never played the schmoozing game. He was not into that at all.

31. If you want me just whistle. You know how to whistle don't you? Just put your lips together and blow.

32. A planned life is a dead life.

33. Losing Bogey was horrible, obviously. Because he was young. And because he gave me my life. I wouldn't have had a - I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't met him - I would have had a completely different kind of life. He changed me, he gave me everything. And he was an extraordinary man.

34. Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind... I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say "The L word". I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group.

35. You had to stay awake married to him (Humphrey Bogart). Every time I thought I could relax and do everything I wanted, he'd buck. There was no way to predict his reactions, no matter how well I knew him. As he'd said before our wedding, he expected to be happily married and stay that way, but he never expected to settle down. He liked keeping people off balance. He was good for me - I could never be quite sure what he would do.

36. The madmen seem to live on forever, don’t they?

37. Very few people want to hear the truth. Bogie was like that, my mother was like that, and I'm like that. I believe in the truth, and I believe in saying what you think. Why not? Do you have to go around whispering all the time or playing a game with people? I just don't believe in that. So I'm not the most adored person on the face of the earth.

38. The times in which we're currently living unfortunately, our great leader (George W. Bush) is such a disaster and the entire country is in disastrous shape because of him. It's very frightening, actually, to think that this country has become what it's become and that so many people voted for a man like that. It's terrifying.

39. When everything happens to you when you're so young, you're very lucky, but by the same token, you're never going to have that same feeling again. The first time anything happens to you - your first love, your first success - the second one is never the same.

40. I never believed marriage was a lasting institution . . . I thought that to be married for five years was to be married forever.

41. I was this flat-chested, big-footed, lanky thing.

42. I don't think being the only child of a single parent helped. I was always a little unsteady in my self-belief. Then there was the Jewish thing. I love being Jewish, I have no problem with it at all. But it did become like a scar, with all these people saying you don't look it.

43. I remember my oldest son, Steve, saying to me once: "I don't ever remember seeing you with an apron on". And I thought, "That's right, honey, you did not". That was his concept of what a mother should be.






44. I would hate now (2005) to be married. It does occur to me on occasion that, if I fall and hit my head, there will be no one to make the phone call. But who wants to think about that disaster? I'd prefer not to.

45. I am still working, I've never stopped and, while my health holds out, I won't stop.

46. I put my career in second place throughout both my marriages and it suffered. I don't regret it. You make choices. If you want a good marriage, you must pay attention to that. If you want to be independent, go ahead. You can't have it all.

47. Actors today go into TV, which I don't consider has a lot to do with acting. They only think of stardom. If you photograph well, that's enough. I have a terrible time distinguishing one from another. Girls wear their hair the same, and are much too anorexic-looking.





48. We live in an age of mediocrity. Stars today are not the same stature as Bogie (Humphrey Bogart), James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart (James Stewart).

49. A legend involves the past. I don't like categories. This one is great and that one is great. The word "great" stands for something. When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behavior is so shocking. It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it's kind of a sickness.

50. I'm a total Democrat. I'm anti-Republican. And it's only fair that you know it . . . I'm liberal. The L word!

51. (on Humphrey Bogart) Was he tough? In a word, no. Bogey was truly a gentle soul.


52. (on John Huston) He was about something.

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