(Thanks again to The Divine Feud for preserving this one for posterity.). Miriam used, and I must give her credit, every trick in the book. A lot of that glamour is gone now.

Lauren Bacall. Because that isn't what you want the most. That's just doggone disrespectful. Davis may not have known her basic human anatomy, but she sure knew how to throw some major shade.

One would think that after all her years in the business she would want to work with a professional. [on sex] God's biggest joke on human beings. What do you mean "at one time"? .

This dig was chronicled forever in Shaun Considine's 1989 biography Bette And Joan: The Divine Feud. Miriam was her own worst enemy.

They get five good hookers in them, and tell their life story. And let me tell you it was hell, sheer hell, waiting to do something about it. It's my life. I can understand how hurt Miss Crawford had to be. Never!" [on Greta Garbo] Oh, Garbo was divine. I wasn't imitating her, of course. I'm thinking of one of those roles that Lauren Bacall or Bette Davis might have played. It's a sign of your …

Who knows?

There are some who might say I had penis envy, but I only had penis admiration.”, “Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I was very much raised by my grandmother, who actually was Bette Davis - looked like her, acted like her, talked like her.

Fasten your seat belts. [when told that "at one time" she had a reputation for being difficult] At one time?! Beyond the Forest (1949) was a terrible movie!

This is and always has been an unforgivable quality to the unsure.”, “I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived.”, “If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.”, “Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child.He needs guidance.If there is love, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child.

What I wouldn't like is to suddenly find myself being cast, as many senior actresses seem to be, as the abbess in a convent. When I became a star, I used to have my chauffeur follow her in my car.

[on director Lindsay Anderson] I think he's a very talented man, but I think he's a difficult man to work with.

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.

That's what Hollywood actors always say.

I suppose that is what has kept her alive.” Well, no I can't.

I loved all those classic figures from the '30s and '40s... Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Humphrey Bogart, Rita Hayworth. To change your happiness, change your expectation.”, “A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else.”, “I'de luv to kiss ya but I just washed my hair.”, “Men become much more attractive when they start looking older. The golden apple devoured has seeds. The key to life is accepting challenges. She became a movie star, and I became the great actress. But people forget that our big scenes were alone - just the camera was on me or her.

— Elaine Stritch, “In my view, she’s one of the all-time great movie stars and actresses. Welcome back. It's like trying to imagine how I would feel if my own beloved, wonderful daughter, B.D., were to write a bad book about me. [after having blown the same line several times in Hollywood Canteen (1944), in which she plays herself] I don't know what's wrong with me, but I think I just can't play myself. I always had the will to win.

Bette Davis. [After hearing that Joan Crawford cried copiously over "Dark Victory"] Joan always cries a lot.

You see, I'm an Aries. All I really want to do is just keep acting, and some of it will stink, and some of it will be really good, and maybe when I'm 85 and presenting an Oscar like Bette Davis did, I can look back and say, 'It was okay, I did all right.'. I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.