Angela Lansbury
I've never been particularly aware of my age. It's like being on a bicycle - I just put my foot down and keep going.Collection: Age
'Blithe Spirit' is played almost all over Britain somewhere at all times because it is such a unique and ridiculously funny show. But it's also, in fact, under those layers of humor, a very serious show. It's quite misogynistic.Collection: Funny
Bringing humor and bringing happiness and joy to an audience is a wonderful opportunity in life, believe me.Collection: Happiness
Here I am, I still go on, you know, like the tides.
I never regretted what I turned down.
A sitcom. I hate that word.
I think of myself as a journeyman actress. I will attempt almost anything that I think that I can bring off. It could be almost anything.
Mystery is something that appeals to most everybody.
There is no excuse whatsoever for men to harass women in an abusive sexual manner. And, I am devastated that anyone should deem me capable of thinking otherwise.
I've worked with the greatest actors, and they're all gone. This is what's so desperate to me.
The Manchurian Candidate was the most important movie I was in, let's face it.
Clint Eastwood is an extraordinary director because he knows the value of a buck. He knows where it will show on the screen.
The theater is magical and addictive.
Through years and years of playing to various audiences, what I've learned is - and I think quite a few actors will agree with me - we're not always the best judge of that audience's reactions or not. And we discover, to our amazement, at the end of the show, they bring the house down with applause, and we thought, 'No way tonight,' you know.
I started in London, as a kid. My mother knew I had sort of an inbred talent. She was an actress, so I inherited it from her. But I think I got a lot of it from my grandfather, who was a great politician.
I had the ability, but I didn't have the name. They could have built me, which is what they did with Deborah Kerr, but I don't think I was quite hot enough in the looks department, quite frankly. I was all talent and no looks.
We all have levels of performance.
I lead a very regimented life. I take excruciating care of myself: I take a lot of vitamins, get enough sleep, don't drink apart from a glass of wine occasionally.
Those of us who were 12 or 13 when the war started were absolutely thrown into the mainstream. We had to grow up instantly and take care of ourselves.
I don't think about going back to the theater.
I have never directed. But I think I could. I have thought about it. I'm a bit long in the tooth to start.
Those who have known the quality of my work and the many public statements I have made over the course of my life must know that I am a strong supporter of Women's Rights.
I was put under contract. A major studio. I got nominated for an Academy Award. Isn't that ridiculous? I mean, at the age of 18!
I made about 56 movies, I think. Not that many.
Believe me, it jabs you. When you're on the side of buses and New York loves you, you love to go out there every night. It's like a race. Curtain opens, out you go, and New York is yours.
Better to be busy than to be busy worrying.Collection: Worry
You just have to be open and ready, and let it all happen.Collection: Ready
My daughter used to sit and watch Murder, She Wrote. I tried to watch with her, but I fell asleep.Collection: Daughter
Actors are not made, they are born.Collection: Actors
I honestly consider that the greatest gift to me, is the reaction that I get from my work. That is a given which I never, ever take for granted. But to be given that by audiences, individuals, on the street, in the theater, is an extraordinary feeling.Collection: Feelings
The purpose of etiquette is to provide an easy set of rules which we can follow when we are in a hurry and want to make sure that we do not give offense to anybody.Collection: Giving
I can't say that I deserve longlife; I don't. I've just been around long enough. They say, "My God, she's still here."Collection: Long
I'm the bionic woman. I have a very strong constitution, and I take excruciatingly good care of myself.Collection: Strong
The older I get, the more I realize how much I have missed because I was so busy entertaining that audience and so busy pursuing a career.Collection: Careers
Im in a very enviable position, being able to work like this 45 years later. Its always beginning! I never have a sense of finishing up, just new things beginning. When I die, theyre going to carry me off a stage.Collection: Years
My memory about names and places now is dreadful. But lines, I can remember.Collection: Memories
I can't say that I pursued a career. I really didn't, it just sort of happened.Collection: Careers
I honestly feel that "Murder, She Wrote" stands alone, as many of the other great shows of the past 35, 40 years do. It stands alone, and it's still on. It's still all over the world, "Murder, She Wrote," Jessica Fletcher and "Murder, She Wrote."Collection: Past
I'm not going to be dancing with the stars at this stage in my life. But I want to dance and bop around, and I did, and I can.Collection: Dance
Everything I did actually helped to build the revenue, shall we say, of experience, which enabled me to play a variety of roles as I got older.Collection: Play
I had no idea that such a thing could happen. It never occurred to me.My son told me. He called me and said, "Darling, I just wanted you to know that you have been chosen to receive an honorary Academy Award." I was in the back of this car, and I said, "Oh," and burst into tears, of course, because it was so unexpected and quite wonderful. I thought it's been worth hanging around all these years.Collection: Son
... because lifestyles are changing constantly the rules of etiquette are changing too -- a little slower than lifestyles perhaps, but still changing.Collection: Littles
Unfortunately, because the theater is always a poor relation when it comes to making the nut, it's not easy to get the audience in to see a play, unless you have a name that is recognizable, that the audience wants to see and is prepared to pay the $125 to see.Collection: Names
Psychologically, you learn the values that are inherent in the dialogue, and you learn to apply it to the way you read the lines. That's acting. You're not yourself saying those lines, you're somebody else.Collection: Acting
The collaboration really begins once the rehearsal starts. This is when the actor takes his place, because he becomes the one who is going to bring the words of the author off the page.Collection: Collaboration
As a kid, I just was a contract player at MGM Studios. They put me into goodness knows how many different roles.Some of them were wonderful and some of them were very just distasteful and awful because I was playing out of my age range and I was thoroughly uncomfortable, let's put it that way. So it took me many years to find my acting feet.Collection: Kids
Louis B. Mayer and I got along like a house afire. He never chased me around his desk or tried anything with me. Of course, he never gave me any good parts, either.Collection: House
You learn the values that are inherent in the scene that the writer has written. You learn about who you as a character are in relation to those others who are working with you within that scene.Collection: Character
I just went along for the ride. It was a God-given gift. It is. So you can't say well, you wasted your life because you spent all of it acting, but I think gosh, I've never been to China, I've never been to Japan. I've never been to Yellowstone Park.Collection: Thinking
I very seldom said no, and I was aided and abetted by my husband, who realized that the one thing I could do was to be a very good actress, by his note.Collection: Husband