Top quotes by Gloria Swanson

Writing the story of your own life is a bit like drilling your own teeth. Votes: 29

Sunset Boulevard opened in August 1950, and it was pronounced the best movie ever made about Hollywood. Votes: 18

Tennessee Williams was a gifted talker with a beautiful accent and we had lots of things in common. Votes: 17

I've given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can't divorce a book. Votes: 14

Sam Wood, the director, made most of his money as a real estate agent; there was nothing of the temperamental artist about him. Votes: 13

We lived on the Key West Army Base. Key West for me was a tropical island paradise. Votes: 13

All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year. Votes: 13

When I die, my epitaph should read: She Paid the Bills. That's the story of my private life. Votes: 12

As Daddy said, life is 95 percent anticipation. Votes: 11

I entered the cosmetics industry because I wanted more women to use cosmetics made with safe, healthful ingredients. Votes: 11

The day I initiated divorce proceedings against Michael Farmer, I was ready to retire to a desert cave and rethink my life. Votes: 10

My sculpture is very personal; for years my subjects were family and close, close friends. Votes: 10

Life and death. They are somehow sweetly and beautifully mixed, but I don't know how. Votes: 10

Because I take care of my body, it doesn't look like the body of a woman of my years. Votes: 10

After 16 years in pictures I could not be intimidated easily, because I knew where all the skeletons were buried. Votes: 10

I feel sure that unborn babies pick their parents. Votes: 9

My greatest debt will always be to the movie-going public of yesterday and today, without whose love and devotion I would have had no story to tell. Votes: 8

Much as I cared for Joseph Kennedy, he was a classic example of that person in the arts with lots of brains and drive but little taste or talent. Votes: 8

I consider anybody who weighs over 200 pounds fat, and time was when I could not refrain from telling such people so. Votes: 8

I doubted that there were Communists hiding behind every corporation desk and director's chair. Votes: 8

All they had to do was put my name on a marquee and watch the money roll in. Votes: 7

I became a fanatic about healthy food in 1944. Votes: 5

Never say never, for if you live long enough, chances are you will not be able to abide by the simplest of such injunctions. Votes: 4

Never say never Never is a long, undependable time, and life is too full of rich possibilities to have restrictions placed upon it. Votes: 4

The Sennett system of making pictures was actually fun. You never knew what the person next to you was going to do. Votes: 3

The major gossip columnists were more concerned with protecting the industry than with gunning down sinners. Votes: 3

The English press treated the world premiere of my first talking picture as a major event. Votes: 2

My mother and I could always look out the same window without ever seeing the same thing. Votes: 2

From the first moment on the set I was consumed with curiousity about the technical side of shooting a sound picture. Votes: 2

The first feminine feature that goes, with advancing age, is the neck. Votes: 2

Fame was thrilling only until it became grueling. Money was fun only until you ran out of things to buy. Votes: 0

At 26 I felt myself a victim rather than a victor in the realm of pictures. Votes: 0

One of the networks sent me a TV set to watch. I didn't care for the medium. It depressed me. Votes: 0

The Paramount executives were so pleased with Sunset Boulevard that they asked me to do a publicity tour. Votes: 0

It's amazing to find that so many people, who I thought really knew me, could have thought that 'Sunset Boulevard' was autobiographical. I've got nobody floating in my swimming pool. Votes: 0

I am a very pragmatic person. Votes: 0

Key West for me was a tropical island paradise. Votes: 0

I always anticipated difficulties in order to avoid scenes. Votes: 0

I had starred in more than 30 successful films, six in a row directed by Cecil B. De Mille. Votes: 0

The only time I ever went hunting I remembered it as a grisly experience. Votes: 0

In two months Joseph Kennedy had taken over my entire life, and I trusted him implicitly to make the most of it. Votes: 0

I didn't want to spend the rest of my life playing Norma Desmond over and over again. Votes: 0

Your body is the direct result of what you eat as well as what you don't eat. Votes: 0

There was no place at all for me in my father's military world. Votes: 0

By the time I was 15, my mother had turned me into a real clotheshorse. Votes: 0

Hollywood's old trick: repeat a successful formula until it dies. Votes: 0

I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it. Votes: 0

I think all this talk about age is foolish. Every time I'm one year older, everyone else is too. Votes: 0

I was 25 and the most popular celebrity in the world, with the possible exception of my friend Mary Pickford. Votes: 0

I was married when I was 17. I knew nothing. I was full of romance. Votes: 0

I was the first celebrity in pictures to be marrying a titled European. Votes: 0

If you're 40 years old and you've never had a failure, you've been deprived. Votes: 0

In a theater you can fool everyone past the tenth row if you're good, but on the screen you can't really fool anyone for a second. Votes: 0

Nobody gets anything for nothing. Votes: 0

Nobody gets something for nothing. Votes: 0

So they were turning, after all - those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her. Norma: You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a whisper) There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up. Votes: 0

The fuss that actors began making about the difficulty of shifting to sound struck me as perfectly foolish. Votes: 0