Lauren Bacall Quotes
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I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing.
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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.
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The real stakes in the theater are high - they are life stakes. That's what I love about it. You gamble with your life, and that's a gamble worth taking.
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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.
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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.
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I hope I'm thought of as not just a showbiz personality, but as someone who has lived a life and who has hopefully made a contribution to something along the way - someone who is a human being as well as an actress.
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Life is amazing, life is odd. Life is not what you expected it to be. Things happen... Growing up takes longer than you think.
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I'm crazy enough to believe in taking chances in every way, in making choices and gambling with your life. That's the kind of gambling I believe in.
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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.
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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.
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If goodness is its own reward, shouldn't we get a little something for being naughty?
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You realize yourself when you start reflecting - because I don't live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are - that you can't ignore it. But I don't look at scrapbooks.
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The purity of Jewish upbringing - the restrictions that one carries through life being a 'nice Jewish girl' - what a burden.
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I am not a has-been. I am a will-be.
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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.
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I finally felt that I came into my own when I went on the stage.
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You can't always be a leading lady.
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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.
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How long an actress lives professionally depends on her stamina, the extent of her masochism, her imagination, and her yearning for recognition or approval.
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Legends are all to do with the past and nothing to do with the present.
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I always brought up my children not to believe in Mothers Day gifts, and now I regret it.
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I find that through the sad times, work is what made my continuing, not breaking down, possible. In work, I was always someone else and I subconsciously reveled in that.
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I've still not gotten my choice of the best roles in the world.
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The problem in America as far as actors are concerned - and it's probably true in other fields, as well - is that they don't value people who are older or talented. I don't think ability means anything. How much money you have or how much money you can make for them are the only things they seem to care about or understand.