Ava Gardner Quotes & Sayings

After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: "She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!" — Ava Gardner

When I lose my temper, honey, you can't find it any place. — Ava Gardner

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! — Ava Gardner

And the news got worse. It appeared that there was this whole other person Jesus Christ whose birthday a lot of people tended to confuse with mine. I was personally outraged. It was a long time before I forgave the Lord for that. — Ava Gardner

All I have going is my looks. When my beauty goes, I'm through. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

I was never an actress
none of us kids at Metro were. We were just good to look at. — Ava Gardner

Hollywood - that's a place where love is viewed both pragmatically and philosophically in the saying, 'Tis better to have loved and divorced than never to have had any publicity at all. — Ava Gardner

He will always be my Sir Galahad. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

In one scene, when I was supposed to say, "In a pig's eye you are," what came out was, "In a pig's ass you are." Old habits die awfully hard. — Ava Gardner

He always called me Daughter. It was to distinguish me from his sister Ava. I loved being called Daughter. It sounded so possessive, and to be possessed when you are a child is just a wonderful feeling. It makes you feel safe. It makes you feel loved. — Ava Gardner

Although no one believes me, I have always been a country girl and still have a country girl's values — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

I want to remember it all, the good times and the bad times, the late nights, the boozing, the dancing into dawns, and all the great and not-so-great people I met and loved in those years ... — Ava Gardner

For the loot, honey, for the loot. — Ava Gardner

I must have seen more sunrises
than any other actress in the history of Hollywood — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

Great idea," I said. "Call the police. Call the fucking police. — Ava Gardner

What's the point? My face, shall we say, looks lived in. — Ava Gardner

fame gives you everything you never wanted. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

I couldn't imagine a better place [Australia] for making a film on the end of the world. — Ava Gardner

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 — Ava Gardner

Maybe, in the final analysis, they saw me as something I wasn't and I tried to turn them into something they could never be. I loved them all but maybe I never understood any of them. I don't think they understood me. — Ava Gardner

Sing me not a song; let me hear your recital of veneration and respect; this I will listen to over and over when I share your need of pleasing. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

Fame and fortune does not mean anything if you don't have a happy home. — Ava Gardner

Hell, I suppose if you stick around long enough they have to say something nice about you. — Ava Gardner

I think the main reason my marriages failed is that I always loved too well but never wisely. — Ava Gardner

What I'd really like to say about stardom is that it gave me everything I never wanted. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

I hate cheating. I won't put up with it. I don't do it myself. — Ava Gardner

Sex isn't all that important, but it is when you love someone very much. — Ava Gardner

Then, aided by the booze, like a fool I tossed off one of those throwaway lines that would have been better thrown away. Ah, Frank! I thought you were going to be down here fucking Lana. — Ava Gardner

When he fell down the stairs, he told people he'd had a stroke. He was just pissed out of his skull. I love Dirk, he is such a drama queen. — Ava Gardner

Elizabeth Taylor is not beautiful, she is pretty - I was beautiful. — Ava Gardner

I don't mind growing old. If I have to go before my time, this is how I'll go
cigarette in one hand, glass of scotch in the other. — Ava Gardner

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial. — Ava Gardner

I'm here to tell you, there ain't much forgiveness in that old-time religion. That particular savior was a mean son of a bitch. If you sinned, honey, he was going to get you, no doubt about it. — Ava Gardner

The truth is, honey, I've enjoyed my life. I've had a hell of a good time. — Ava Gardner

God knows I've got so many frailties myself, I ought to be able to understand and forgive them in others. But I don't. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner

I do everything for a reason. Most of the time the reason is money. — Ava Gardner

I either write the books or sell the jewels , and I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels. — Ava Gardner

I caught his drift, but I wasn't going to argue for a single second. Just get me to the Hampshire House, that's all I cared about. Besides, how could I say, "No, I'm not a prositute. I'm Mrs. Frank Sinatra out for an early morning walk in the rain"? — Ava Gardner

So this was where lust was satisfied. If I'd been an old-time miner I'd have asked for my gold nugget back. — Ava Gardner

Some of the things that I regret most in my life happened when I was drinking. I'm just not good with alcohol. And I don't give a damn what time of the day it is, I just drink too much. — Ava Gardner

I have only one rule in acting
trust the director, and give him heart and soul. — Ava Gardner

I thought I was making fifty dollars a week [at MGM], but it turned out to be $35 because twelve weeks of the year you were on layoff. It was white slavery, and it lasted for seventeen years. — Ava Gardner

Petting is the study of the anatomy in braille. — Ava Gardner

Love is nothing but a pain in the ass — Ava Gardner

And I won 'em back fair and square. So what are you going to do about it? Want to fight? Who wants the first bloody nose? — Ava Gardner

Oh, what the hell did I know? I went to the set the first day in full makeup and the director told me to take it off. So I did the film without makeup. I had nothing to do with anything I did. I never understood why I was so famous. — Ava Gardner

Go fuck yourself," I replied, always the lady. "I'm staying here. — Ava Gardner

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. — Ava Gardner