Rehearsals and screening rooms are often unreliable because they can't provide the chemistry between an audience and what appears on the stage or screen.
I had been offered a Hollywood contract before my 18th birthday. It gave me the spark I needed.
Houses are one of my passions. I probably should have been an interior decorator.
I hole up now and then and do nothing for days but read.
Throughout my career, I was to be cast as a frontier girl, an aristocrat, an Arabian, a Eurasian, a Polynesian, and a Chinese.
What a different world it was when I first sailed for Europe in 1930, with my mother, sister, and brother to spend six months abroad.
I was fortunate enough to work under directors who were, most of them, brilliant, emotional men.
I am not the kind of woman who excuses her mistakes while reminding us of what used to be.
I was fine when it came to cheering up others, not so fine with myself.
I dated dozens of young men, had fun with all, made commitments to none.
I used up every cent I earned as an actress.
Life is a little like a message in a bottle, to be carried by the winds and the tides.
When my mood was high, I seemed normal, even buoyant. I felt smarter. I had secrets. I could see God in a light bulb.
I needed to be accepted, not humored. I intended to act.
Fonda and Gary Cooper had the best sense of timing of all the actors I knew.
In my early days in Hollywood I tried to be economical. I designed my own clothes, much to my mother's distress.
I learned quickly at Columbia that the only eye that mattered was the one on the camera.
Those who become mentally ill often have a history of chronic pain.
I admire anyone who rids himself of an addiction.
My mother would not talk to me for weeks, would not stay under my roof for as long as I was married to Oleg.
I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.
Men are wonderful. I adore them. They always give you the benefit of the doubt.
Cars, furs, and gems were not my weaknesses.
In later years, I craved foods that were almost always fattening.
Hollywood can be hard on women, but it did not cause my problems.
About my career I was serious and earnest, sometimes impatient.
I simply did not want my face to be my talent.
I knew I could not cope with the future unless I was able to rediscover the past.