Greta Quotes & Sayings

There was a terrible stretch of time in Einar's life - from the time Hans left Bluetooth until the day he met Greta at the academy - when he lived without anyone to reveal his secrets to. Lili could remember that, the feeling of biting down on one's thoughts and feelings and storing them up for no one. — David Ebershoff

Theatre is a sacred space for actors. You are responsible; you are in the driving-seat. — Greta Scacchi

A great song is the reason you want to jump out of your bed in the morning. — Greta Salpeter

As the elevator door started to close, she stood and put up one hand to wave goodbye. That's one of those frozen memories for me, because there was something in Greta's solemn wave that made me understand it was about something bigger. That as the elevator door eclipsed the look between us, we were really saying goodbye to the girls we used to be. Girls who knew how to play invisible mermaids, who could run through dark aisles, pretending to save the world. — Carol Rifka Brunt

There is no one who would have me - I can't cook. — Greta Garbo

This is where I have wasted the best years of my life. — Greta Garbo

Religion is a belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces, and events and judgments that happen after we die. It therefore has no reality check. And it is therefore uniquely armored against criticism, questioning, and self-correction. It is uniquely armored against anything that might stop it from spinning into extreme absurdity, extreme denial of reality ... and extreme, grotesque immorality. — Greta Christina

86. I get angry when believers unhesitatingly attribute every good thing in the world to God - and then respond to bad things by saying, "God works in mysterious ways." If God's ways are so mysterious, and we can't begin to understand his thinking behind tsunamis and drought and pediatric cancer, then what makes you think you understand his intentions when it comes to pretty sunsets or cute puppies or helping you find the peanut butter? — Greta Christina

There are a million little things, but one of the best ways to get to know characters is to just put them in situations and see what they say. — Greta Gerwig

Some of us, in the words of the divine Greta Garbo, want to be alone. — Agatha Christie

I think any break-up from a long relationship has this accompanying feeling of who am I without this person. You feel like a half-person because you've integrated yourself into an idea of a couple for so long, and then teasing that out and finding out who you are without them, it just takes a while. It feels like an amputation. — Greta Gerwig

I have done everything I can to make sure my daughter knows her father because you form your own identity by rebelling against your parents - but first you have to know them. — Greta Scacchi

I had the conviction that lovemaking fools you. The overpowering emotions it induces make you think you're sharing the same feelings as the other person and that they're imagining the same as you. — Greta Scacchi

A good song is like a mannequin - its form makes sense, but there's no life. There should be memorable melody, thoughtful lyric, appropriate arrangement. — Greta Salpeter

I don't want to be a silly temptress. I cannot see any sense in getting dressed up and doing nothing but tempting men in pictures. — Greta Garbo

Our beliefs affect our behavior towards others. And that makes our
beliefs, not just a personal question, but an ethical one. — Greta Christina

I've been a workaholic since I was 18. — Greta Van Susteren

And wasn't that the inexhaustible struggle for Greta? Her perpetual need to be alone but always loved, and in love. — David Ebershoff

The day my mother gave us the keys, she also made me and Greta sign a form so that the bank knew our signatures. To get in we had to show our key and sign something so they would know it was really us. I was worried that my signature wouldn't look the same. I wasn't sure when that thing would happen that made it so you always signed your name exactly the same, but it hadn't happened to me yet. So far I'd only had to sign something three times. Once for a code of conduct for the eighth grade field trip to Philadelphia, once for a pact I made with Beans and Frances Wykoski in fifth grade that we'd never have boyfriends until high school. (Of the three of us, I'm the only one who kept that pact.) — Carol Rifka Brunt

It's difficult in Hollywood to be allowed to try anything. It's all a terrible compromise. There is no time for art. All that matters is what they call box office. — Greta Garbo

Let's say that Person 1 thinks their hair dryer is telling them to shoot every redhead who gets on the 9:04 train. And let's say Person 2 thinks their hair dryer is telling them to volunteer twice a week at a homeless shelter.
Is it better to volunteer at a homeless shelter than it is to shoot every redhead who gets on the 9:04 train? Of course it is.
But you still have a basic problem - which is that you think your hair dryer is talking to you. — Greta Christina

Greta moved on. She kept smiling. Nobody looked at her with any recognition or pleasure and why should they? People's eyes slid round her and then they went on with their conversations. They laughed. Everybody but Greta was equipped with friends, jokes, half-secrets, everybody appeared to have found somebody to welcome them. — Alice Munro

The economy is rough. I think that affects everyone from big filmmakers to tiny filmmakers. — Greta Gerwig

The mystery surrounding Garbo was as thick as a London fog. — Greta Garbo

Cameras in court are just messengers; don't blame them, blame the participants. — Greta Van Susteren

For Peter, being with Greta was like being wrapped in a warm towel after emerging cold and shivering from the ocean. — Molly Ringwald

I have invested some money and I have a home, but people don't realise that you might only be working for a few weeks of the year and remain unemployed the rest of the time. — Greta Scacchi

You seldom get that in film where you're lucky if you get any say at all in the final cut. — Greta Scacchi

Movies are now more often watched on the small screen anyway. But at least for me, what got lost in that is the difference in the medium. — Greta Gerwig

I want to be left alone. — Greta Garbo

In relationships, you learn a million things. I'm sure a therapist can tell you about it. — Greta Gerwig

There was a saying around MGM: "Norma Shearer got the productions, Greta Garbo supplied the art, and Joan Crawford made the money to pay for both". — Joan Crawford

him. I also recall the great poster for Ana Christie with Greta Garbo, based on a Eugene O'Neill play. 'Garbo Talks' it said. In that film, a series of inns were shown to stimulate our expectations, then there was mist, then a horse in the mist, then finally a woman arrived from Sweden and walked across the stage. Ferrari. Was it Greta Garbo? Borges. Yes, she arrived at the bar and slowly strolled past a very long table. We all expected her to talk - we were waiting to hear Greta Garbo's voice, her never-heard-before voice. What we did hear was a hoarse voice that said, 'Give me a whisky.' It made us shiver with emotion. That was her first talkie. — Jorge Luis Borges

Jan knew it was pointless to ponder the rights and wrongs of Greta's decision, for the decision had been made and they were on their way to a foreign city. He would just have to make the best of things, for all their sakes. He tried to turn his attention to more practical matters, ... — Joanne Owen

I think in theater the playwright is king. Those words are unchangeable. They are the reason that everything else flows from. — Greta Gerwig

I like things that look like mistakes. — Greta Gerwig

Religion is a belief in supernatural entities or forces that have an effect on the natural world - A belief in forces that are invisible, intangible, inaudible and otherwise undetectable by any natural means. — Greta Christina

Why would I come back to you? — Erin Bow

Once, I had so many scripts coming to me that I could hardly read them all. — Greta Scacchi

The freckle-faced corporal from Iowa grinned. "Geez, Major, whatever you gave that German broad last night sure got her talking. Was it some new Russian drug? Something from HQ?"

"That's my affair." Major Rosemary Wilson ignored the grinning boy and lit a cigarette, blowing out smoke as she gazed through the one way mirror. The German girl, Waller, looked pale and lost under the interrogation lights, but she was still exceptionally pretty. No doubt last night had been her first time with a woman. Still, Greta had been an enthusiastic learner, responsive and eager to please. The Major had every intention of continuing the girl's education -- once Werewolf and his Nazi pack were back behind bars. — Joseph Heywood

I like acting and things when I like the writing. If I don't like the writing, I don't like acting. I think in some ways everything starts for me from the place of writing. — Greta Gerwig

Greta abides by the reasonable philosophy that there is nothing in the universe more boring than someone else's dreams. — Elan Mastai

All alike, you men. You only want the satisfaction of being through with us first, that's all. So far I've had the good fortune of beating you to it. So I am heartless. — Greta Garbo

Anyone who has a continuous smile on his face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening. — Greta Garbo

I think people loosely use the term 'free speech.' If the market wants to be such that people don't want to watch someone, so be it. — Greta Van Susteren

I mean, the actors that I admired were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, an actress named Barbara Harris. And Greta Garbo. They were great actors. — Robert De Niro

President Obama can find time to meet with a YouTube personality who eats cereal out of a bathtub, but not the prime minister of our ally Israel? — Greta Van Susteren

I really enjoy what I'm doing. — Greta Van Susteren

It's so hard for people to give up their cell phones or their ideas of being connected to everything all the time in order to get an immersive experience. That's the best way to make art. It's almost like you have to treat it like you're going into a submarine, and Noah Baumbach totally agrees with that. There's not a real other life that happens outside of the movie while it's being shot, which I like. — Greta Gerwig

I like people who love books and movies and art and want to talk about it all the time, because that's basically what I want to talk about. Intellectuals that are funny. — Greta Gerwig

I like really stupid comedies. — Greta Van Susteren

How can one change one's entire life and build a new one on one moment of love? And yet, that's what you make me want to close my eyes and do. — Greta Garbo

I always knew it was going to be difficult when I got beyong 40, but I didn't realise it would start at 35. — Greta Scacchi

I can say I'm a relationship person, and I like relationships. I think I also like relationships because then you don't have to date because dating is horrible. — Greta Gerwig

Beside me, Eric throws Greta's tennis ball far over the scrub of the land. In the coming dark, his features are blurred. He could be anyone, and so could I. — Jodi Picoult

I've been through some very difficult stages in my life, but I wouldn't change anything. — Greta Scacchi

I'm not saying that everyone needs to be celibate, but you don't need a romance to complete a story about a woman — Greta Gerwig

I feel lucky, happy and philosophical about it all. — Greta Scacchi

Snow is like a wide sea. One could go out and be lost in it and forget the world, and oneself. — Greta Garbo

I was always sad as a child, for as long as I can think back. I hated crowds of people, and used to sit in a corner by myself, just thinking. — Greta Garbo

I want to come across as a positive person. — Greta Scacchi

When one has not long to live, why shouldn't one have fancies? — Greta Garbo

There's an economy in sports that I always think is a useful metaphor for acting. You have an objective. You're trying to win, and of course, you want to do well. You want to use good techniques so you enforce it, but also you don't do things you don't have to do. It's very economical, and I think that in acting the most economical way through a scene is always the best. It's active. There is the sense of the fight and you want to win. — Greta Gerwig

You don't have to be married to have a good friend as your partner for life. — Greta Garbo

Getting bad reviews or doing something that's not great is also really good for you as an actor. It also makes me feel as an actor that I've earned my stripes a bit. — Greta Gerwig

In college, it's very easy to maintain your female friendships because you're in such close proximity all the time. — Greta Gerwig

I only said, 'I want to be left alone.' — Greta Garbo

I came to Ireland 20 years ago as a student, hitch-hiking round for a week and staying in Dublin. — Greta Scacchi

Being a movie star, and this applies to all of them, means being looked at from every possible direction. You are never left at peace, you're just fair game. — Greta Garbo

It was a nice thing for her to say. In her way. With Greta you have to look out for the nice things buried in the rest of her mean stuff. Greta's talk is like a geode. Ugly as anything on the outside and for the most part the same on the inside, but every once in a while there's something that shines through. — Carol Rifka Brunt

What person here illegally (and in his right mind), will go to the government, announce being here illegally (e.g. plead guilty), provide all sorts of information as to where that person lives etc. to get a work permit only to be a target for deportation in two years? — Greta Van Susteren

Any musician with a slight level of self-awareness can be taught to write a 'good' song. A great song is completely original. It feels as if the performer is the only person who could bring it to life. — Greta Salpeter

Having had a reputation for being sexy is a great prop to lean on now. — Greta Scacchi

The ending shot of 'Queen Christina' with Greta Garbo is amazing. She's at the head of the ship, and she's been through so much, and the camera gets so close to her face. That really sticks out for me. — James Gray

If you don't think you're close-minded for not believing in Zeus, then please don't accuse atheists of being close-minded for not believing in your god. — Greta Christina

I live in New York, and I love New York as well, but I think Los Angeles is a place where if you have the right person with you, there are all these little worlds that you would never guess by just looking at the exterior of what the city is. — Greta Gerwig

These people - the Williamses - were not to be taken lightly. Least of all, Greta Williams. — E.M. Kaplan

I could be the Greta Garbo of comedy, very secluded, but Garbo had a man who was beyond rich to support her. — Joan Rivers

If only those who dream about Hollywood knew how difficult it all is. — Greta Garbo

I wrote a song at age five about algae on the pond by our house, then the next 'real' song was in fifth grade about an unrequited crush. — Greta Salpeter

Life would be so wonderful if we only knew what to do with it. — Greta Garbo

One summer when Carol was attending day camp, Greta had an affair with a man named Mel Carter. He was an Eastern publicity representative for a film studio, and often instructed dinner parties to which we went in those days with accounts of the movies' coming of age. 'We have a picture coming up,' he said once, 'in which a character says "son of a bitch." Lots of exciting things are happening. Still, it's only a beginning. Much remains to be done. — Peter De Vries

My father was absent and he was a hero to me. — Greta Scacchi

My close proximity to many of the newsmakers can give me a different perspective about people in politics and what they might say than others who don't know them. — Greta Van Susteren

People often ask why I left CNN - I didn't like management. I liked my colleagues in the news gathering but the corporate culture that seized management when AOL came in (Steve Case and Gerry Levin) was disgusting. — Greta Van Susteren

I'm an independent type. No one tells me what to do. — Greta Van Susteren

I cannot see myself as a wife. Ugly word. — Greta Garbo

I don't like to talk to people, because I can't express myself satisfactorily. I don't say the things I mean. — Greta Garbo

I like the sea: we understand one another. It is always yearning, sighing for something it cannot have; and so am I. — Greta Garbo

I was serious about ballet for a long time, but my mom got me into tap and jazz and modern and hip-hop, and I was one of those over-lessoned children. — Greta Gerwig

Every one of us lives this life just once, if we are honest, to live once is enough. — Greta Garbo

Greta Wickham. He used to say if only Nora and Greta were here now, we wouldn't be in this mess, even when there was no mess at all." "Oh, he talked very warmly about you," Peggy interjected, "and William Junior and Thomas had nothing but good words to say about Maurice Webster when he was teaching them. I remember one day Thomas had a temperature and we all wanted him to stay in bed and he wouldn't, oh no he wouldn't, because he had a double commerce class with Mr. Webster that he could not miss. You know they wanted Thomas to stay in Dublin when he qualified. Oh, he got offers with very good prospects! We told him he should consider — Colm Toibin

I ... Why do you want me to?"
There was a flicker of something in Greta's look. I couldn't tell whether it was a flicker of love or regret or meanness, and then she said, "Why wouldn't I want you to?"
Because you hate me, I thought, but I didn't say it. — Carol Rifka Brunt

I was a ballet dancer. I did other kinds of dance but ballet was my great love. But then it became clear, when I was 12, that my body wasn't going to be right. That's always a heartbreaking moment because there's nothing you can do about that. Your body is just not right. You don't have enough turnout. You're not built properly. — Greta Gerwig

Get some ice on that." "I will." She turned toward the house, steady enough. "You get nauseated or have blurry vision, tell Greta." Abigail started to nod, then checked the motion. He hoped she wouldn't overdo it. He'd known one too many cowboys to take a fall, keep working, then keel over later. "Lie down and take it easy," Wade called. "Yes, Dad," Abigail said saucily. Wade clamped his lips together. Last thing he wanted was Abigail thinking fatherly thoughts of him. Heaven knew, his own weren't going that direction. — Denise Hunter

I would love the chance to ask follow-up questions of Susan Rice because David Gregory apparently did not avail himself of that opportunity. Greta, I just listened to the clip - I get tougher questions in the Bojangles drive-through than he asked her. — Trey Gowdy

I live like a monk: with one toothbrush, one cake of soap, and a pot of cream. — Greta Garbo

[When asked if she believed in "women's lib":] Not really. Not when I see what most of them look like. — Greta Garbo

No candidate dares to look for a new campaign model that could really enhance the democratic process. Instead we are left with the current one which makes our candidates look like hucksters. — Greta Van Susteren

Your joys and sorrows. You can never tell them. You cheapen the inside of yourself if you do tell them. — Greta Garbo