LAUREN BACALL QUOTES II

American actress (1924-2014)

Why don't you get dressed. I'll wait downstairs and sort of get a fresh impression.

LAUREN BACALL

Dark Passage


The madmen seem to live on forever, don’t they?

--LAUREN BACALL

interview, Dec. 19, 2007

Tags: madness


I was nuts about him. Know what he did to me. First he gave me a phony name. Second, he was already married. Third, the minute the preacher said amen, he never did another tap of work. Then he stole my TV set and gave it to a car hop. When I asked him about that, he hit me with a chicken.

LAUREN BACALL

How to Marry a Millionaire


Please, I'm a politician's wife. I have a set of my own.

LAUREN BACALL

My Fellow Americans

Tags: politics


Legends are built and evolve in the past. They're not the present. I don't like categories either, in any event. I prefer individual -- I mean, if people have respect for you or admire your work or whatever, I mean, you know, it's like they say, this one is the second Garbo, that one is the second Bogart. There are no seconds. You are what you are, everyone is an individual.

LAUREN BACALL

Larry King Live, May 6, 2005


So you're a private detective. I didn't know they existed, except in books, or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors.

LAUREN BACALL

The Big Sleep


When it comes to girls, you make your own invitations.

LAUREN BACALL

The Forger


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

Larry King Live, May 6, 2005


Naïveté, thy name is me.

LAUREN BACALL

By Myself and Then Some


When the curtain goes up, it's ours. It's ours to project what the playwright wants to stay to an audience, what to convey and to get a response from the audience immediately. 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

Larry King Live, May 6, 2005

Tags: theatre


You can't always be a leading lady.

LAUREN BACALL

attributed, The Guardian, August 13, 2014


Charlie's a prince of the Seminole Nation. His ancestors go back to the gods. He sells sea shells by the sea shore.

LAUREN BACALL

Key Largo


You know Steve, you're not very hard to figure, only at times. Sometimes I know exactly what you're going to say. Most of the time. The other times ... the other times, you're just a stinker.

LAUREN BACALL

To Have and Have Not


Yeah, the audience is different. You never see the same show twice, never. And although we -- you have to be disciplined and you have to stick to what the final cut was, you know. And I mean one is not supposed to start creating on stage and throwing all the other actors off. So, and especially in a musical because the orchestra keeps going no matter what happens. They never stop. And so it's just the most wonderful experience. It's really thrilling. And I have been very, very lucky to have been in such great shows and "Applause" of course was the great highlight for me.

LAUREN BACALL

Larry King Live, May 6, 2005

Tags: acting


No woman who wants something is a lady. If she is, she doesn't get it.

LAUREN BACALL

Bright Leaf

Tags: women