"I start Bette Davis In Person shows with film clips ending with the 'Fasten your seat-belts' line from All About Eve. Then, I come on stage, light a cigarette, look around and say 'What - a - dump!' Really breaks the ice - people laugh and relax instead of having to revere me."

"I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year."

"Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you're not a star."

"I see ~ she's the original good time that was had by all."

"Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies."

"I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries."

"I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived."

"An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring... I ought to know."

"I never did pal around with actresses. Their talk usually bored me to tears."

"I wanted to be the first to win three Oscars, but Miss Hepburn has done it. Actually it hasn't been done. Miss Hepburn only won half an Oscar. If they'd given me half an Oscar I would have thrown it back in their faces. You see, I'm an Aries. I never lose."

"Gay Liberation? I ain't against it, it's just that there's nothing in it for me."

"Old age is no place for sissies."

"I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oft times disagreeable ... I suppose I'm larger than life."

"Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work."

" With the newspaper strike on, I wouldn't consider dying."

"From the moment I was six I felt sexy. And let me tell you it was hell, sheer hell, waiting to do something about it."

"I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache."

"The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can't get work in the movies."

"She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie." (on Joan Crawford)

"Hollywood's first case of syphilis, I wouldn' t sit on her toilet." (on Joan Crawford)

"Gary was a macho man, but none of my husbands was ever man enough to become Mr Bette Davis." (on Gary Merrill, her fourth husband)

"Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life."

"At 50, I thought proudly: Here we are, half century! Being 60 was fairly frightening. You want to know how I spent my 70th birthday? I put on a completely black face, a fuzzy black Afro wig, wore black clothes and hung a black wreath on my door."

"I will never be below the title."

"I was the Marlon Brando of my generation."

"I don't think of myself as a character actress ~ that's become a phrase which means you've had it."

"First time was when I was 26 and got married - and it was hell waiting."

"I believe God helps those who help themselves."

"Locations are all tough, all miserable. I never left the sound stage for 18 years at Warners. We never went outside the studio, not even for big scenes."

"I was never beautiful like Miss Hayworth or Miss Lamarr. I was known as the little brown wren. Who'd want to get me at the end of the picture?"

"I was never very interested in boys - and there were plenty of them ~ vying with one another to see how many famous women they would get into the hay."

"Men become much more attractive when they start looking older. But it doesn't do much for women, though we do have an advantage: make-up."

"Strong women only marry weak men."

"I've always liked men better than women"

"Psychoanalysis. Almost went three times ~ almost. Then I decided what was peculiar about me was probably what made me successful. I've seen some very talented actors go into analysis and really lose it."