Bette Davis Quotes

That picture clinched my future as far as Universal was concerned. They felt that as I had not emerged as a glamour girl after being worked over by , I had no possibilities. When I arrived in Hollywood, when I thought about it all, I considered myself as normally attractive; after that year at Universal I found that I was apologizing for living. Physically I considered myself as one to be avoided. I still cringe at the beating I took.

The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead.

This became a credo of mine...attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

I love my profession. I would never stop. Relax? I relax when I work. It's my life.

When a man gives his opinion, he's a man; when a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.

Once the love bug wears off, as it inevitably does, you are shocked to discover that you really didn't know the object of your affections at all. We know this to be so, even as we repeat the same mistake over and over and over.

I was thought to be 'stuck up.' I wasn't. I was just sure of myself. This is and always has been an unforgivable quality to the unsure.

In this business, until you're known as a monster, you're not a star

Old age ain't no place for sissies.

When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.

Miss Bankhead isn't well enough known nationally to warrant my imitating her. (In response to accusations she imitated Bankhead in the role of Margo Channing in All about Eve. Bankhead resented Davis for the perceived imitation, which she considered mocking, and for portraying her Broadway Roles on film [Dark Victory, Jezebel, The Little Foxes]. This comment is unusual in that Davis usually tried to deflate the myth [started by Tallulah for amusement and publicity] of any sort of conflict between them, instead expressing her admiration for Bankhead. Similarly, when Bankhead was asked to do an imitation of Davis, she said "Why should I dahling, she's been imitating me long enough". Before candidly remarking "But really, it's been sheer coincidence that Bette's been playing the leading roles in films like Dark Victory. I really admire her very much.")

Old Age Ain't For Sissies. Taken from a Bette Davis quote.

Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, Pain of love lasts a lifetime.

I would rather have a go at something I feel, and be hurt, than always be protecting myself — that way one does not really live.

I think it was that picture, more than anything else, that gave me a horror of nobility. Ever since then I have fought against portraying saccharine characters. Give me the part of a vixen and I'm happy.