Marlene Dietrich Quotes & Sayings

Soup not only warms you and is easy to swallow and to digest, it also creates the illusion in the back of your mind that Mother is there. — Marlene Dietrich

A country without bordellos is like a house without bathrooms. — Marlene Dietrich

It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. — Marlene Dietrich

Grumbling is the death of love. — Marlene Dietrich

I, personally, liked the legend. — Marlene Dietrich

I'm not an actress, I'm a personality. — Marlene Dietrich

Tenderness is greater proof of love than the most passionate of vows. — Marlene Dietrich

Sex: In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact. — Marlene Dietrich

It gives you the impression that every day is Sunday. — Marlene Dietrich

The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong. — Marlene Dietrich

Duties are what make life most worth living. Lacking them, you are not necessary to anyone. — Marlene Dietrich

The British have an umbilical cord which has never been cut and through which tea flows constantly. It is curious to watch them in times of sudden horror, tragedy or disaster. The pulse stops apparently and nothing can be done, and no move made, until "a nice cup of tea" is quickly made. There is no question that it brings solace and does steady the mind. What a pity all countries are not so tea-conscious. World-peace conferences would run more smoothly if "a nice cup of tea", or indeed, a samovar were available at the proper time. — Marlene Dietrich

Most people who make movies are in real life a bitter disappointment. I, on the other hand, am so much better in real life. — Marlene Dietrich

Darling, the legs aren't so beautiful, I just know what to do with them. — Marlene Dietrich

There's something about an American soldier you can't explain. They're so grateful for anything, even a film actress coming to see them. — Marlene Dietrich

Glamour is what I sell, it's my stock in trade. — Marlene Dietrich

I have a child and I've made a few people happy. That is all. — Marlene Dietrich

To be completely woman you need a master, and in him a compass for your life. You need a man you can look up to and respect. If you dethrone him it's no wonder that you are discontented, and discontented women are not loved for long. — Marlene Dietrich

Dietrich would never do that — Marlene Dietrich

Logic is the key to an all-inclusive spiritual well-being. — Marlene Dietrich

[On Las Vegas:] I love that town. No clocks. No locks. No restrictions. — Marlene Dietrich

A man is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman
any woman
with beautiful legs. — Marlene Dietrich

The Germans and I no longer speak the same language. — Marlene Dietrich

One should be afraid of life, not of death. — Marlene Dietrich

For women, beauty is more important than the mind, because the man is easier to watch than to think. — Marlene Dietrich

Victory is gay only back home. Up front it is joyless. — Marlene Dietrich

Where have all the flowers gone — Marlene Dietrich

On Teasing : Teach your teen-age daughters not to tease boys into physical desire. You might save their lives. — Marlene Dietrich

Without tenderness, a man is uninteresting. — Marlene Dietrich

Don't follow it blindly into every dark alley. Always remember that you are not a model or a mannequin for which the fashion is created. — Marlene Dietrich

I'm worth more dead than alive. Don't cry for me after I'm gone; cry for me now. — Marlene Dietrich

Habit: Often mistaken for love. — Marlene Dietrich

The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face. — Marlene Dietrich

Your daughter is your child for life. — Marlene Dietrich

It is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed by someone wiser than oneself. — Marlene Dietrich

In language gender is particularly confusing. Why, please, should a table be male in German, female in French, and castrated in English? — Marlene Dietrich

Love affairs are the real only education in life. — Marlene Dietrich

I am not a myth. — Marlene Dietrich

[The lover says:] How beautiful you are, now that you love me. — Marlene Dietrich

I had no desire to be an film actress, to always play somebody else, to be always beautiful with somebody constantly straightening out your every eyelash. It was always a big bother to me. — Marlene Dietrich

Sex is much better with a woman,
but then one can't live with a woman — Marlene Dietrich

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs. — Marlene Dietrich

I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men. — Marlene Dietrich

What remains is solitude. — Marlene Dietrich

How do you know love is gone? If you said that you would be there at seven and you get there by nine, and he or she has not called the police yet - it's gone. — Marlene Dietrich

Until they come to see us from their planet, I wait patiently. I hear them saying: Don't call us, we'll call you. — Marlene Dietrich

Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. — Marlene Dietrich

If there is a supreme being, he's crazy. — Marlene Dietrich

It's the friend you call up at four o'clock in the morning that really matters. — Marlene Dietrich

To lose your prejudices you must travel. — Marlene Dietrich

Words can bruise and break hearts, and minds as well. There are no black and blue marks, no broken bones to put in plaster casts, and therefore no prison bars for the offender. — Marlene Dietrich

Being in the depths of sadness is just as important an experience as being exuberantly happy. — Marlene Dietrich

I never enjoyed working in a film. — Marlene Dietrich

Courage and grace are a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is in the bullring. — Marlene Dietrich

Latins are tenderly enthusiastic. In Brazil they throw flowers at you. In Argentina they throw themselves. — Marlene Dietrich

Every human being is in need of talking to somebody. In this country nobody has time. It seems that talking to a friend has gone out of style. Now you have to pay money to go to an analyst. — Marlene Dietrich

A new kind of award has been added
the deathbed award. It is not an award of any kind. Either the recipient has not acted at all, or was not nominated, or did not win the award the last few times around. It is intended to relieve the guilty conscience of the Academy members and save face in front of the public. The Academy has the horrible taste to have a star, choking with emotion, present this deathbed award so that there can be no doubt in anybody's mind why the award is so hurriedly given. Lucky is the actor who is too sick to watch the proceedings on television. — Marlene Dietrich

Do let him read the papers. But not while you accusingly tiptoe around the room, or perch much like a silent bird of prey on the edge of your most uncomfortable chair. (He will read them anyway, and he should read them, so let him choose his own good time.) Don't make a big exit. Just go. But kiss him quickly, before you go, otherwise he might think you are angry; he is used to suspecting he is doing something wrong. — Marlene Dietrich

Glamour is assurance. It is a kind of knowing that you are all right in every way, mentally and physically and in appearance, and that, whatever the occasion or the situation, you are equal to it. — Marlene Dietrich

Gentleman. A man who buys two of the same morning paper from the doorman of his favorite nightclub when he leaves with his girl. — Marlene Dietrich

Seeing twilight fall should be prescribed by doctors. — Marlene Dietrich

America took me into her bosom when there was no longer a country worthy of the name, but in my heart I am German - German in my soul. — Marlene Dietrich

Timing: The alpha and omega of aerialists, jugglers, actors, diplomats, publicists, generals, prizefighters, revolutionists, financiers, dictators, lovers. — Marlene Dietrich

You can't live without illusions, even if you must fight for them. — Marlene Dietrich

When you prostitute yourself, you have to get paid for it. — Marlene Dietrich

Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is the bullring. — Marlene Dietrich

Careful grooming may take twenty years off a woman's age,
but you can't fool a flight of stairs — Marlene Dietrich

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself. — Marlene Dietrich

I have been photographed to death — Marlene Dietrich

A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma. — Marlene Dietrich

They want you to bring out your intestines. — Marlene Dietrich

When you're dead, you're dead. That's it. — Marlene Dietrich

You're never lonely with a book. — Marlene Dietrich

What a man notices first about a woman is whether she notices him. — Marlene Dietrich

Judging by the vast amount of cookbooks printed and sold in the United States one would think the American woman a fanatical cook. She isn't. — Marlene Dietrich

There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money and being rich Under a picture of a mom holding a baby — Marlene Dietrich

I do not think we have a "right" to happiness. If happiness happens, say thanks. — Marlene Dietrich

Champagne makes you feel like it's Sunday and better days are just around the corner. — Marlene Dietrich

The air and the sky seem to have been freshly washed and polished, and the people too. — Marlene Dietrich

I never ever took my career seriously. — Marlene Dietrich

There comes a time when suddenly you realize that laughter is something you remember and that you were the one laughing. — Marlene Dietrich

The average man is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman with beautiful legs. — Marlene Dietrich

Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret. — Marlene Dietrich

Writers, Composers, Painters, - also artists like directors and actors fall into the same category. They have to be handled with kid gloves, mentally and physically — Marlene Dietrich

It is my private life which no one knows anything about, nor ever will. It needs more than half my time if it is to be a success. — Marlene Dietrich

Most women set out to try to change a man, and when they have changed him they do not like him. — Marlene Dietrich

Love for the joy of loving, and not for the offerings of someone else's heart. — Marlene Dietrich

Soft drinks: The gooey, bubbly sea drowning our American children. — Marlene Dietrich

The relationship between the make-up man and the film actor
is that of accomplices in crime — Marlene Dietrich

A man would prefer to come home to an unmade bed and a happy woman than to a neatly made bed and an angry woman. — Marlene Dietrich

I am, at heart, a gentleman. — Marlene Dietrich

On Becoming a 'Lady': What every mother wants her daughter to be. — Marlene Dietrich

In America, sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it's a fact. — Marlene Dietrich

I was raised almost entirely on turnips and potatoes, but I think that the turnips had more to do with the effect than the potatoes. — Marlene Dietrich

In Europe, it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman - we make love with anyone we find attractive — Marlene Dietrich

[On Orson Welles:] When I talk to him, I feel like a plant that's been watered. — Marlene Dietrich

H is for Hardware store: I'd rather go to the hardware store than the opera. And I like the opera. — Marlene Dietrich