Best Lauren Bacall Quotes & Sayings

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

Very few people want to hear the truth. Bogie was like that, my mother was like that, and I'm like that. I believe in the truth, and I believe in saying what you think. Why not? Do you have to go around whispering all the time or playing a game with people? I just don't believe in that. So I'm not the most adored person on the face of the earth. — Lauren Bacall

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

He [Bogie] had tremendous character and a great sense of honor and would not tolerate lies, even if they asked him what he thought of a movie. We were once at a screening at somebody's house, I forget whose, and they ran a movie that he was in, that he never thought much of. Afterward, the producer asked what he thought of it, and Bogie said "I think it's a crock." And this producer was horrified! He was about to release the movie, and he said to Bogie "Why would you say that?!" Bogie shrugged and said "Then don't ask me." He never played the schmoozing game. He was not into that at all. — Lauren Bacall

Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you're alive, it isn't. — Lauren Bacall

I adored 'Breaking The Waves,' so when Lars von Trier wanted me in 'Dogville,' I was beside myself with joy. He works in a way that nobody I've ever worked with works. — 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

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

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

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

I'd love to play a femme fatale in a film noir. I'm thinking of one of those roles that Lauren Bacall or Bette Davis might have played. 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. — Diana Quick

Losing Bogey was horrible, obviously. Because he was young. And because he gave me my life. I wouldn't have had a - I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't met him. I would have had a completely different kind of life. He changed me, he gave me everything. And he was an extraordinary man. — Lauren Bacall

I'm not tough, and I never have been. I suppose over the years I've built up kind of a veneer to protect myself because I have functioned on my own for a long, long time, and I have never had a lot of flunkies preceding me to clear the way. — 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

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

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

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

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

Movies are great fun and wonderful when they're good. But you never get to see them till six months after they're finished. So you never get a sense of whether they're really well liked or how good they are. And you don't really know what the finished product is going to be like, because it's a director's medium. — 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

You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what's happening now. — 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

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.
-- Lauren Bacall — E.J. Jackson

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

I was always a little unsteady in my self-belief. Then there was the Jewish thing. I love being Jewish, I have no problem with it at all. But it did become like a scar, with all these people saying you don't look it. — Lauren Bacall

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

I don't have an entourage. In fact, I have no live-in help. — Lauren Bacall