Lauren Bacall Quotes & Sayings

I used to dream of being other places, other people. It was an escape for me. — Lauren Bacall

I suppose there are times when I can't believe that I've lived the way that I have and done the things that I've done. Life's a joke anyway. It's all ridiculous. It's all so short. — Lauren Bacall

I spent my childhood in New York, riding on subways and buses. And you know what you learn if you're a New Yorker? The world doesn't owe you a damn thing. — Lauren Bacall

I'm not a sedentary person. I've always been active. — Lauren Bacall

When a woman reaches twenty-six in America, she's on the slide. It's downhill all the way from then on. It doesn't give you a tremendous feeling of confidence and well-being. — Lauren Bacall

From my own self-analysis, which I seldom indulge in, I am what I am. — Lauren Bacall

I don't sit around thinking that I'd like to have another husband; only another man would make me think that way. — Lauren Bacall

But the amazing thing about life, I've finally discovered, is that you really don't learn from past mistakes. You do logically, reasonably, but emotionally not for a second. — Lauren Bacall

All the Warner actors were real actors. They started in theater and led very straightforward lives - you never saw entourages around. The MGM girls were the glamour girls, and they always had the makeup and hair people with them and all that. — Lauren Bacall

They're guys who want to screw around all the time, which interests me not at all. God knows we've done that, been there, and we don't want to do that any more. — Lauren Bacall

No, I'm afraid they might slip and hit a nerve and I'd end up with one side of my face hanging down or something. I'll just stick with this one for a while and take my chances. I'll be brave. — Lauren Bacall

I would hate now to be married. It does occur to me on occasion that, if I fall and hit my head, there will be no one to make the phone call. But who wants to think about that disaster, I'd prefer not to. — Lauren Bacall

All actors are terrified - they just learn how to control it. — Lauren Bacall

You realize yourself when you start reflecting - because I don't live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are - that you can't ignore it. But I don't look at scrapbooks. — Lauren Bacall

One thing I am convinced of is that the more you do, the more you can do. — Lauren Bacall

Yes, I saw Twilight - my granddaughter made me watch it, she said it was the greatest vampire film ever. After the 'film' was over I wanted to smack her across her head with my shoe, but I do not want a (tell-all) book called Grannie Dearest written on me when I die. So instead I gave her a DVD of Murnau's 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu and told her, 'Now that's a vampire film!' And that goes for all of you! Watch Nosferatu instead! — Lauren Bacall

If you want me, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.
(as Marie 'Slim' Browning in To Have and Have Not) — Lauren Bacall

I was this kid, and I was scared to death of all these pros around me ... My head would shake, and my hands would shake, and I discovered if I kept my head down and looked up, my head would not shake, so I started to do that when I could, when it was appropriate in a scene. — Lauren Bacall

Patience was not my strong point. — Lauren Bacall

I don't consider myself a great actress. I'm just trying to stay alive, actually. I think I'm good, and I've learned a lot, certainly, mostly in the theater. I've been sloughed off movies for years. But what can you do? That's life. — Lauren Bacall

Childhood anxieties, childhood fears, never disappear entirely. They fade, but not away. — Lauren Bacall

My every dream and hope, and far beyond, were to be realized. I couldn't have wished for a man as incredibly good as this man was. And even so I didn't realize every quality of Bogie's on that day. He was to surprise and delight me continually in the ensuing years — Lauren Bacall

How many women do we know who were continually kissed by Clark Gable, William Powell, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy and Fredric March? Only one: Myrna Loy. — Lauren Bacall

The problem in America as far as actors are concerned - and it's probably true in other fields, as well - is that they don't value people who are older or talented. I don't think ability means anything. How much money you have or how much money you can make for them are the only things they seem to care about or understand. — Lauren Bacall

I never believed marriage was a lasting institution. I thought that to be married for five years was to be married forever. — Lauren Bacall

A famous love story is hard to maintain when you both live in the spotlight. — Lauren Bacall

The best things in life are clean living, good works, and big saphires. And not in that order. — Lauren Bacall

[Katharine Hepburn] was much stronger, much more opinionated than I am or ever was, and it was considered attractive on her. But not on me. I don't know. Maybe her Bryn Mawr accent was more appealing than mine. — Lauren Bacall

Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind ... I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say "The L word". I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group. — Lauren Bacall

Stupidity is not my favourite thing; I cannot deal with it. — Lauren Bacall

A planned life is a dead life. — Lauren Bacall

I was this flat-chested, big-footed, lanky thing. — Lauren Bacall

I called my business manager in California and said, 'Sell all of my stock' - what little of it I had - and it's the only smart financial move I ever made. — Lauren Bacall

I put my career in second place throughout both my marriages and it suffered. I don't regret it. You make choices. If you want a good marriage, you must pay attention to that. If you want to be independent, go ahead. You can't have it all. — Lauren Bacall

For my peculiar face, I look best when I look as though I'm not wearing make-up. — Lauren Bacall

A man's illness is his private territory and, no matter how much he loves you and how close you are, you stay an outsider. You are healthy. — Lauren Bacall

Isn't hope an incredible, a wonderfully demented thing? — Lauren Bacall

I hope I'm thought of as not just a showbiz personality, but as someone who has lived a life and who has hopefully made a contribution to something along the way - someone who is a human being as well as an actress. — Lauren Bacall

I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. — Lauren Bacall

In actual fact, I've never been one, even from childhood, to kind of analyze myself very much. — Lauren Bacall

In Hollywood, an equitable divorce settlement means each party getting fifty percent of publicity. — Lauren Bacall

My son tells me, 'Do you realize you are the last one? The last person who was an eyewitness to the golden age?' Young people, even in Hollywood, ask me, 'Were you really married to Humphrey Bogart?' 'Well, yes, I think I was,' I reply. You realize yourself when you start reflecting - because I don't live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are - that you can't ignore it. But I don't look at scrapbooks. I could show you some, but I'd have to climb ladders, and I can't climb — Lauren Bacall

To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived. — Lauren Bacall

The times in which we're currently living unfortunately, our great leader [George W. Bush] is such a disaster and the entire country is in disastrous shape because of him. It's very frightening, actually, to think that this country has become what it's become and that so many people voted for a man like that. It's terrifying. — Lauren Bacall

Actors today go into TV, which I don't consider has a lot to do with acting. — Lauren Bacall

I figure if I have my health, can pay the rent and I have my friends, I call it 'content.' — Lauren Bacall

You learn to rise above a lot of bad things that happen in your life. And you have to keep going. — Lauren Bacall

Everything in this country [the US] has got to be good looks and unlined faces and thin bodies and people running around in skirts slit up to their ass. It has nothing to do with thinking or with being a human being. There is life in mature people; it's not all over at 24½. — Lauren Bacall

My life has had meaning, with the friendships full and valuable and essential to me. My children, Steve, Leslie, and Sam, are all different-all first-rate human beings with high standards-whom I completely and unequivocally adore-don't always agree with-but always admire and respect. They all have wit and a sense of humor and, thank God, I have hung on to mine. — Lauren Bacall

What is the point of working all your life and then stopping? — Lauren Bacall

You can't always be a leading lady. — Lauren Bacall

It's not an old movie if you haven't seen it. — Lauren Bacall

Men need to feel important. They feel better when they're with younger girls or unknown girls. — Lauren Bacall

I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing. — Lauren Bacall

I was never my favourite subject. — Lauren Bacall

After the age of 30 in the movie profession, you're pretty well over as far as the casting people are concerned. — Lauren Bacall

Each time a friend dies, the present becomes the past, in an instant. — Lauren Bacall

Well, the people I've known I must say are extraordinary. When I think about some of them, I can't believe that I knew them all. And I think the reason I knew most of them at the beginning was because they were of Bogie's generation, 25 years my senior, not mine. But they were the most talented people of all. — Lauren Bacall

I always thought I had crooked eyebrows and crooked teeth. That's why I never understood why people called me a beauty. — Lauren Bacall

We live in an age of mediocrity. — Lauren Bacall

I finally felt that I came into my own when I went on the stage. — Lauren Bacall

Generally women are better than men
they have more character. I prefer men for some things, obviously, but women have a greater sense of honor and are more willing to take a chance with their lives. — Lauren Bacall

The real stakes in the theater are high - they are life stakes. That's what I love about it. You gamble with your life, and that's a gamble worth taking. — Lauren Bacall

As long as I can walk and talk, I'll try almost anything. I say "almost" because the high wire is definitely out. — Lauren Bacall

There were times, sure, I wanted my career to go better. But once it starts to go downhill, you can never get back, or only to some degree. — Lauren Bacall

He named me. He liked the sound of it. And I said, well, all right. I felt a little odd about it. I don't understand all that name changing business anyway ... No, he felt that Lauren Bacall was better sounding than Betty Bacall. He had a vision of his own. He was a svengali. He wanted to mold me. He wanted to control me. And he did until Mr. Bogart got involved. — Lauren Bacall

Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life. — Lauren Bacall

Most women use more brains picking a horse in the third at Belmont than they do picking a husband — Lauren Bacall

My mother was the greatest example to me of anyone I've ever known. She didn't have an easy life. I adored her. She worked hard all her life, and she was the one who set my values. She was quite an amazing woman, although she wasn't tough at all. — Lauren Bacall

I have made mistakes in the past and been in movies that really weren't good, and that I needed the money at the time, or something
and the money wasn't even that great. But I needed it, and ... they come back on television, those movies ... to haunt you. And it's a nightmare! — Lauren Bacall

When everything happens to you when you're so young, you're very lucky, but by the same token, you're never going to have that same feeling again. The first time anything happens to you - your first love, your first success - the second one is never the same. — Lauren Bacall

It was Howard Hawks who changed my life. — Lauren Bacall

Legends are all to do with the past and nothing to do with the present. — Lauren Bacall

Howard Hawks said he'd like to put me in a film with Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart. I thought, "Cary Grant-terrific! Humphrey Bogart-yucch." — Lauren Bacall

I find that through the sad times, work is what made my continuing, not breaking down, possible. In work, I was always someone else and I subconsciously reveled in that. — Lauren Bacall

I studied dancing for 13 years. And loved to dance. Always wanted to dance with Fred Astaire. — Lauren Bacall

I wasn't brought up as a society girl to go to balls and be a debutante and marry the social set and money and go to parties. No one in my family lived like that. And I never wanted to live like that. I was brought up to believe in work. I always wanted a career. Always. — Lauren Bacall

The madmen seem to live on forever, don't they? — Lauren Bacall

You don't always win your battles, but it's good to know you fought — Lauren Bacall

You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind. — Lauren Bacall

The purity of Jewish upbringing - the restrictions that one carries through life being a 'nice Jewish girl' - what a burden. — Lauren Bacall

Remember what Bogie and my mother both used to say: 'Character is the most important thing. All that matters is character!' — Lauren Bacall

Let's face it: I want it all
just like you and everybody else. It may not be in the cards, but the prospect is so dazzling that I have to try. — Lauren Bacall

Facing a situation head on was the only way to deal with anything. I learned the lesson early. — Lauren Bacall

I like to work with really good professional people - anyone with real talent. — Lauren Bacall

God - if the press ever quoted anyone correctly, it would be brilliant. — Lauren Bacall

My feeling about the movies is that most of them are terrible. If you don't have a decent script and a decent director, forget it. — Lauren Bacall

I remember my oldest son, Steve, saying to me once, 'I don't ever remember seeing you with an apron on.' And I thought, that's right, honey, you did not. That was his concept of what a mother should be. — Lauren Bacall

I've always felt that work - learning from people who know more than I know - is what keeps you going. — Lauren Bacall

I always wanted to work with Spencer Tracy, which never happened, although I knew him well. And I never worked with Cary Grant. — Lauren Bacall

If goodness is its own reward, shouldn't we get a little something for being naughty? — Lauren Bacall

No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it. — Lauren Bacall

I'd like to meet the man who decided that people do or don't look Jewish. What the hell does that mean anyway? Is it the American penchant for pinning things down, catergorizing, for pigeonholing people? Whatever it is, it's wrong. — Lauren Bacall

When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise. — Lauren Bacall

I am not a has-been. I am a will be. — Lauren Bacall

Stardom isn't a profession, it's an accident. — Lauren Bacall

I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that. — Lauren Bacall

People should tell your children what life is all about
it's about work ... — Lauren Bacall

Find me a man who's interesting enough to have dinner with and I'll be happy. — Lauren Bacall

Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world. — Lauren Bacall