Quotes

Movie actors wear dark glasses to funerals to conceal the fact that their eyes are not red from weeping.

[on Hollywood] This is the only place I ever heard of where the citizens practice stabbing themselves in the back in their spare time just by way of gymnasium workouts.

Women who have been sewn into their clothes should never drink to excess.

[on 'Louella Parsons' (qv] Her writings stand out like an asthmatic's gasps.

[on Humphrey Bogart] A fan came over during dinner one time and Bogey told him to beat it. When the guy got back to his table I heard his companion say, quite happily, "See, I told ya he'd insult you."

[on Herman J. Mankiewicz] Sure, Mank was witty, but his wit took a much more elaborate form than wisecracks. He could improvise in a way that just held you spellbound.

[on Marilyn Monroe] An arrogant little tail-twitcher who learned to throw sex in your face.

[on Betty Grable] I don't think Betty would want an Oscar on her mantelpiece. She has every Tom, Dick and Harry at her feet.

[to David O. Selznick] My understanding is that an assignment from you consists of three months work and six moths recuperation.

I think John Ford almost dies because he can't write. It just runs him nuts, that he has thoughts and ideas and has never trained himself to put them down on paper. And I've found that true of so many directors. They're just so thwarted.

So many outrageous things went on that made me ashamed of the whole industry ... think of John Huston having to go and debase himself to an oaf like Ward Bond.