Ava Gardner
Mama, you know, poor baby, she'd had her family all finished: four daughters and a couple of sons, and suddenly, I arrived in her midlife on Christmas Eve 1922.Collection: Christmas
I have only one rule in acting - trust the director and give him heart and soul.Collection: Trust
Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.
When you get to be my age, baby, you have to pay time more respect.
What's the point? My face, shall we say, looks lived in.
I never played a woman who was smarter than me.
It's a pity nobody believes in simple lust anymore.
Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldn't have been more wrong.
It's a shame that it didn't work out with Mick. I was hopelessly in love with him.
I think the main reason my marriages failed is that I always loved too well but never wisely.
Nobody could pile on the applesauce like Mickey. He was the best liar in the world - well, Frank Sinatra can tell a good story, too, but I don't believe he was ever unfaithful to me.
I go on tremendous health kicks - exercise, yogurt, no booze. Of course, I smoke too much.
It's fine being stared at as a pretty girl, but not as a freak. When I tried to make myself ugly, they said, 'Oh, she's lost her looks.'
I suffered, I really suffered, with all three of my husbands. And I tried damn hard with all three, starting each marriage certain that it was going to last until the end of my life. Yet none of them lasted more than a year or two.
I was born with good health and a strong body and spent years abusing them.
There was no way the marriages could have survived. Nor do I regret that they didn't.
I do owe Mickey one thing: he taught me how much I enjoyed sex.
To be possessed when you are a child is just a wonderful feeling. It makes you feel safe. It makes you feel loved. But later if anyone tried to possess me - oh boy, I was out of there.
I'm not saying my own looks don't give the game away. Nothing I can do about that anymore. A nip and tuck ain't gonna do it.
I hate journalists. I don't trust them.
Mickey - the smallest husband I ever had and the biggest mistake I ever made - well, that year, it was.
I think the most vulgar thing about Hollywood is the way it believes its own gossip.
I fell down in Hyde Park with a friend who'd had a hip operation, and neither of us could get up again. People must have thought we were a couple of drunks rolling around and walked on by.
I did a lot of hokey movies when I was starting out at MGM. Good and bad, mostly bad.
The marriages to Mickey and Artie were easy come, easy go. I called them my 'starter husbands!'
Women's liberation as a movement makes some valid points. But in the final analysis, it doesn't matter who wears the pants - as long as there's money in the pockets.Collection: Money
It’s a pity nobody believes in simple lust anymore.Collection: Believe
The truth is that the only time I'm happy is when I'm doing absolutely nothing. I don't understand people who like to work and talk about it like it was some sort of goddamn duty. Doing nothing feel like floating on warm water to me. Delightful, perfect.Collection: People
When I'm old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music, and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in.Collection: Hate
I wish to live to 150 years old, but the day I die, I wish it to be with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.Collection: Glasses
I do everything for a reason. Most of the time the reason is money.Collection: Reason
Love is nothing but a pain in the assCollection: Pain
Elizabeth Taylor is not beautiful, she is pretty—I was beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
If I had my life to live over again, I'd live it the same way. Maybe a few changes here or there, but nothing special. The truth is, honey, I've enjoyed my life. I've had a hell of a good time.Collection: Special
Don't think for a minute that bad publicity and endless criticism don't leave their claw marks on everyone concerned. Your friends try to cheer you up by saying lightly, "I suppose you get used to it, and ignore it." You try. You try damned hard. But you never get used to it. It always wounds and hurts.Collection: Hurt
Fame gives you everything you never wanted.Collection: Giving
I've certainly never taken the care of myself that I should have. On the contrary. I've done a lot of late nights without enough sleep and all that. But I've had fun. Whatever wrinkles are there, I've enjoyed getting them.Collection: Fun
Fame and fortune does not mean anything if you don't have a happy home.Collection: Life
When I lose my temper, honey, you can't find it any place.Collection: Honey
I dealt with men who had tempers, and who could get violent-Lord knows how I had to defend myself against Howard Hughes and Frank Sinatra, and from Artie Shaw's verbal abuse. But George [C. Scott] was a different category of animal when he got drunk. He'd break into my hotel room, which he did in Italy, London and at the Beverly Hills Hotel, attack me to where I was frightened for my life, and scream, 'Why won't you marry me?' Well, I would never marry a man who couldn't control his liquor. Me, I'm a happy drunk. I laugh, I dance. I certainly don't break bottles and threaten to kill.Collection: Animal
Doing nothing feels like floating on warm water to me. Delightful, perfect.Collection: Perfect
All I have going is my looks. When my beauty goes, I'm through.Collection: Looks
I haven't taken an overdose of sleeping pills and called my agent. I haven't been in jail, and I don't go running to the psychiatrist every two minutes. That's something of an accomplishment these days.Collection: Running
Our phone bills were astronomical, and when I found the letters Frank wrote me the other day, the total could fill a suitcase. Every single day during our relationship, no matter where in the world I was, I'd get a telegram from Frank saying he loved me and missed me. He was a man who was deseperate for companionship and love. Can you wonder that he always had mine!Collection: Men
After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: “She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!”Collection: Hands
What I'd really like to say about stardom is that it gave me everything I never wanted.Collection: Stardom
When you have to face up to the fact that marriage to the man you love is really over, that's very tough, sheer agony. In that kind of harrowing situation, I always go away and cut myself off from the world. Also, I sober up immediately when there is genuine bad news in my life; I never face it with alcohol in my brain. I just rented a house in Palm Springs and sat there and just suffered for a couple of weeks. I suffered there until I was strong enough to face it.Collection: Strong
Sex isn't all that important, but it is when you love someone very much.Collection: Sex
Although no one believes me, I have always been a country girl and still have a country girl's valuesCollection: Girl
Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldn't have been more wrongCollection: Sexy