Bette Quotes

#1. I love beautiful black-and-white movies - anything Bette Davis, especially 'Now', 'Voyager', 'Casablanca', 'Mildred Pierce'; anything by Orson Welles, Truffaut, or Godard; and 'Paper Moon' by Peter Bogdanovich.

Suzan-Lori Parks

#2. Bette Davis had a phrase that called it "cigarette smoking acting" .

Joe Eszterhas

#3. I think one of my favourite films is 'Dark Victory' with Bette Davis. Why? She was so wonderful in that film. And maybe I just want a good cry once in a while without having to go through a divorce.

Debbie Reynolds

#4. Beauty is subjective: Bette Davis wasn't beautiful, but she was more than beautiful.

Jacques Audiard

#5. Tracy Ullman, I grew up watching her shows and standup and improv and specials. Bette Midler and Whoopi Goldberg. They inspire me to do it all. I always wanted to do it all; I never wanted to be put in a box.

Bresha Webb

#6. I think one of my biggest influences is Bette Davis. I've seen almost every one of her films, and she's been very inspiring to me.

Elisabeth Moss

#7. I'd watch old movies with Judy Garland, Shirley Temple and Bette Davis and long to be part of that glamorous world. A lot of that glamour is gone now. In my own small way, I hope I'm bringing some of it back. But it would be great if I could inspire women to dress up.

Imelda May

#8. I always loved the bad girls in the movies. I loved Bette Davis; I loved Katherine Hepburn. I loved Ava Gardner.

Imelda May

#9. The Bette Davis Club," she said. "You've joined, you're a member. It's my metaphor for any female - and there've been zillions - who gets a crush on a gay fellow, dates a gay fellow, or heaven help us, marries a gay fellow.

Jane Lotter

#10. When asked what it takes to succeed in the acting profession, Bette Davis would answer, "the courage to be hated."

Frank Langella

#11. I just loved Bette Davis and the fact that I had a chance to work with her [on the 1979 TV movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter] was momentous.

Gena Rowlands

#12. Aunt Bette." I started squirming toward her voice. "Are you okay?" "No, I'm not okay. We've been kidnapped and Marsh is drinking martinis and probably flirting with the waitress!" she snapped, and it sounded like she too was moving but not in my direction.

Kristen Ashley

#13. I keep saying that, if Samuel L. Jackson and Bette Davis could have a baby, it would be Taraji P. Henson. To me, she's one of the greatest character actors of our generation, let alone leading ladies. She's just phenomenal in everything she does.

Jussie Smollett

#14. All I really want to do is just keep acting, and some of it will stink, and some of it will be really good, and maybe when I'm 85 and presenting an Oscar like Bette Davis did, I can look back and say, 'It was okay, I did all right.'

Whoopi Goldberg

#15. It's weird, because American films in the 1930s and '40s, particularly melodramas, were made for woman, from Bette Davis to Joan Crawford to Barbara Stanwyck to Katherine Hepburn, and for some reason we've taken a step backward in this sense.

James Gray

#16. I grew up on Bette Davis movies, and Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe.

Charlize Theron

#17. I loved all those classic figures from the '30s and '40s ... Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Humphrey Bogart, Rita Hayworth. They had such glamour and style. I loved the movies of those times too - so much attention paid to details, lights, clothing, the way the studios would develop talent.

Grace Jones

#18. I was the kid that grew up watching Bette Davis films.

Rebecca Hall

#19. Bette Davis taught Hollywood to follow an actress instead of the actress following the camera, and she's probably the best movie actress there's ever been.

Elaine Stritch

#20. I had never done a Director's Cut narration on Beaches so I did in time for the release of the DVD. It was a great visit and I do a whole-behind-the-scenes thing and I tell stories about Bette [Mudler] and Barbara Hershey and everybody and that was fun. It made me cry again.

Garry Marshall

#21. I've been close to Bette Davis for thirty-eight years - and I have the cigarette burns to prove it.

Henry Fonda

#22. I don't think I had the aspiration to be a star growing up. I loved Madonna and Bette Midler, and I had my karaoke machine and would sing their songs.

Mandy Moore

#23. In the movies, Bette Davis lights two cigarettes and hands the second one to James Cagney. It was just so glamorous and romantic.

Loni Anderson

#24. The only street I like is Rue Honore de Balzac, because 'Balzac' sound so gay, and I love my gays. I might like Parisians more if they named their streets only for gay icons, like Rue Liza Minnelli or Rue Bette Midler or, my favorite, Rue McClanahan.

Joan Rivers

#25. If it weren't for Liberace, there would be no Madonna or Lady Gaga, Elton John, Bette Midler, or Elvis because it was Liberace who helped the King glitz up his act.

Robin Leach

#26. I always knew I was going to be successful in some way with films. I don't know why. I had no particular talent, but I always knew I was going to be sitting in a dining room with Lucille Ball and at a cocktail party with Bette Davis.

Robert Osborne

#27. I loved Bette Davis when I was little and when I was big and when I got old.

Gena Rowlands

#28. Oh, yes, we were on location with Another Man's Poison, which I wrote for Bette Davis.

Val Guest

#29. To Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider ... To all actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to all men who act and become women, to all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother.
- Dedication, Todo Sobre Mi Madre

Pedro Almodovar

#30. If you do a musical, it's really thrilling and it's a lot of work, but it's very rewarding. I would say, for me, what I like best is what I do, which is, I call it vaudeville, I call it live, I call it in concert, I call it what Bette Midler does, and what Garland did for years, and Ethel Merman.

Debbie Reynolds

#31. 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

#32. When I heard the gunshots, though, I knew - knew beyond the shadow of a doubt - that somewhere in Los Angeles Bette Davis was on the prowl and packing heat. ("Shadows From The Screen")

Richard Valley

#33. Looking is an important part of Stanwyck's acting: many performers have beautiful eyes (for example, Henry Fonda), or use their eyes expressively (most remarkably, perhaps, Bette Davis), but few use them so attentively to observe and survey others and the world [as Stanwyck].

Andrew Klevan

#34. My favorite actress of all times is Bette Davis in Dark Victory. I have seen it six or seven times, and I still cry.

Bettie Page

#35. Wonderful. Visions of Aunt Bette McGyvering an explosive with that exposed nail, some lint from her pocket and spit filled my head just as the door opened quickly and shut just as quickly.

Kristen Ashley

#36. [Beaches] is a pretty picture and I just liked having somebody like Bette [Mudler] who can be flying in the big comedy scenes and have her do more like a realistic part.

Garry Marshall

#37. So, I certainly subscribe to what Bette said about acting being very hard work.

Marie Windsor

#38. Look, you're either loved or hated. Which is a good thing, as Bette Davis used to say.

Mario Cantone

#39. Are you coming?" Aunt Bette said from the other side of the door. "No, I - " Already came. I stopped myself mid-sentence before I blurted it out.

C.D. Reiss

#40. There will be no 'Mommie Dearest' in the lives of my children, and no books like the one the Crosby boy wrote about Bing, or Bette Davis's daughter has written. My children love me very much, and they are loved.

Don Ameche

#41. I adore Bette Davis and Vivien Leigh, but more because they were good actresses. That's what makes me interested in them, that they didn't present themselves as idols; they were just doing their jobs.

Imelda Staunton

#42. I kind of wanted to be a waitress in New York City. I thought it was fun and glamorous in its own way. Like in the movie 'Beaches,' when Bette Midler is banging on the radiator, and it's cold, and she's poor. I kind of thought that would be fun to be, like, a poor, struggling actor.

Kether Donohue

#43. idea. But if you look at her early films, the best ones are all about Bette wanting a male she can't have: Dangerous. All This, and Heaven Too. Jezebel. The Letter. Now, Voyager. They're all about the unattainable. They're all about a woman desiring a man she can never possess.

Jane Lotter

#44. Outside the door, a teller with a blue rosette chomps on an apple and asks for my number. She smiles a thank you and reveals a ghastly, gaping tunnel of masticated apple, edge with violent mauve lipstick seemingly applied by Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

Maddie Grigg

#45. People talk about the golden age of Hollywood because of how women were lit then. You could be Joan Crawford and Bette Davis and work well into your 50s, because you were lit and made into a goddess. Now, with everything being sort of gritty, women have this sense of their use-by date.

Cate Blanchett

#46. There's like this great thing that Bette Davis said when someone asked her, "How do you get into Hollywood?" "Take Fountain!"

Winona Ryder

#47. I was inspired more by early Bette Midler. I do wear a fancy dress and very high heels - and extra high hair. My goal is to obliterate all earnestness.

Ana Gasteyer

#48. Back in the days of Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis, beauty wasn't the be-all and end-all it is today.

Marcia Gay Harden

#49. I always felt that Bette Davis was one of the great screen actresses who never really got her due - she won two Oscars, but the last was in 1938, and that was really before all the great work that she did.

Robert Osborne

#50. I had a feeling Aunt Bette was thinking of taking on the Russian mob.

Kristen Ashley

#51. There was an inquiry just last week about the new Bette Midler show, and I just didn't want to do that.

Robert Urich

#52. I think the great power of Bette Davis was she always knew who she was. She had an obligation to herself and her audience. When you think of what she was compelled to do, the power she put on the screen, the fact that she took upon herself a much greater task ...

James Woods

#53. My favourite actors are all dead or dying. I just love Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn - I was named after her - and Cary Grant. I just love old black and white movies and the stars in them. It must have been a great time to be in Hollywood.

Katharine Isabelle

#54. It's more interesting to put yourself in the place of Bette Davis than Irene Dunne, I guess.

Charles Busch

#55. Liberace was a miracle. You talk about who he was and what he did, and then you look at who he inspired, from Elton John to Cher to Michael Jackson to Bette Midler. There are so many people that came to see him. Elvis was there, watching his shows.

Scott Bakula

#56. Most people are awestruck when they see Lady Gaga and Bette Midler, but then the queen comes in.

Jake Shimabukuro

#57. (On Bette Davis) Even when I was carrying a gun, she scared the be-jesus out of me.

Humphrey Bogart

#58. Even as a kid, I was more enchanted watching Bette Davis than Errol Flynn.

Richard LaGravenese

#59. I think mystery is kind of great. I don't know anything about Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn or Ava Gardner - not really - and I like that. I love watching their movies because they're my personal movie stars. I don't know what they eat and who their trainer is.

Rachel Weisz

#60. Bette Davis, she was so brilliant and one of my heroes, but she worked a ton, and then she didn't get All About Eve [1950] until the last minute. Claudette Colbert was supposed to be Margo Channing, but then she broke her back and couldn't do it. That allowed Davis to play her age.

Winona Ryder

#61. The casting couch? There's only one of us who ever made it to stardom without it, and that was Bette Davis.

Claudette Colbert

#62. I could never understand the attraction of Bette Davis. I always preferred Jane Russell.

Richard Griffiths

#63. I watch an awful lot of old Hollywood movies - I'll devour anything with Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. My absolute favourite is 'Sunset Boulevard' starring Gloria Swanson.

Amanda Donohoe

#64. When I was a kid, it was Bette Davis. She was my idol. I used to cut school and sit in the back of the theater; of course, I would have snuck in because I couldn't afford a ticket.

Lauren Bacall

#65. I get up at seven for the make-up, Rita Hayworth at six, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis at five. I don't want to know the time when I'll have to come to the studio even earlier.

Grace Kelly

#66. A lot of people have called me the black Bette Midler, and I regard that as a compliment.

Vesta Williams

#67. Bette Davis had very strong opinions and was not afraid to express them. She wasn't afraid of anything that I ever saw. And she was so funny. She's just funny and she was laughing all the time.

Gena Rowlands

#68. I don't think I have the image that say, Judy Garland has, or Bette Davis.

Julie Andrews

#69. I met Bette Midler, who I absolutely love.

Lesley Nicol

#70. They always threw their arms around and hugged me while crying our Yiddish endearments. Yet none of them believed in God. They believed in social justice, good works, Israel, and Bette Midler. I was nearly thirty before I met a religious Jew.

Anne Lamott

#71. Any of Bette Midler's concerts should be required viewing for every actor/performer. She has the audience in the palm of her hands at all times and can switch emotions on a dime: Great singer, great actress, great comedian - fearless.

Bryan Batt

#72. Bette [Davis] and I are good friends. There's nothing I wouldn't say to her face - both of them.

Tallulah Bankhead

#73. If Mr. Vincent Price were to be co-starred with Miss Bette Davis in a story by Mr. Edgar Allan Poe directed by Mr. Roger Corman, it could not fully express the pent-up violence and depravity of a single day in the life of the average family.

Quentin Crisp

#74. I worked with Dionne Warwick, did shows with Bette Midler, and then I did the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Springsteen at the Garden. It was all important stuff because you want people to know you can work, you can sing, and you can still look good!

Darlene Love

#75. Success is built on disappointment, and disappointment is inherent in all success.

Bette Davis

#76. If they [at the audition] don't like the way you sound they won't buy you anyway, ripped dress or no ripped dress, ass hanging out or no ass hanging out.

Bette Midler

#77. It's no such thing! she said. It's friendship! And if you're a man who can't tell friendship from charity, then you're to be pitied!

Bette Lee Crosby

#78. The young see what they wish to see. The old see what they do not wish.

Bette Lord

#79. The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can't get work in the movies.

Bette Davis

#80. Even if you forget everything else I want you to always remember that you are a person of value, and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession.

Bette Greene

#81. An affair now and then is good for a marriage. It adds spice, stops it from getting boring ... I ought to know.

Bette Davis

#82. When the preacher says it's for better or worse, you're so blinded by the possibility of better you fail to see the reality of worse.

Bette Lee Crosby

#83. Each day is a gift. Treasure it and remember it for what it is. There may come a time when that memory is all you have.

Bette Lee Crosby

#84. As a female I think it's a terrible hindrance in business. I think it's a terrible hindrance for any female to have a lot of intelligence in private life, but I think in business sometimes it's even worse because there's deep resentment.

Bette Davis

#85. Actually, I think business women are better women at home, if you want to know the truth because you do understand what goes into a day's work out in the world, a very nerve-racking affair.

Bette Davis

#86. If somebody makes me laugh, I'm his slave for life.

Bette Midler

#87. Sometimes when a person be thinking about one thing it don't mean they is mad about another thing.

Bette Greene

#88. Life is the past, the present and the perhaps.

Bette Davis

#89. As an actor, you're supposed to take jobs that will challenge you or force fans to see you in a different light. By the '90s, I wasn't really an actor anymore. I was someone who went on the road with these gigantic concerts.

Bette Midler

#90. May each of my grandsons know, at an early age, what his life's ambition is
and may he be successful in his pursuit of that goal.

Bette Davis

#91. I may not have been wearing a mink coat, but I was traveling with a dog. That should have made you think I was an actress!

Bette Davis

#92. I am a woman meant for a man, but I never found a man who could compete.

Bette Davis

#93. If you want a thing done well, get a couple of old broads to do it.

Bette Davis

#94. A man's pride will cause him to do things you never dreamed possible. He got fired up about being right and blocked out everything else.

Bette Lee Crosby

#95. I used to be Snow White but then I drifted.

Bette Davies

#96. When you have a steady job you're more inspired to broaden yourself.

Bette Midler

#97. I was thought to be 'stuck up.' I wasn't. I was just sure of myself. This is and always has been an unforgivable quality to the unsure.

Bette Davis

#98. I try not to drink too much because when I'm drunk, I bite.

Bette Midler

#99. Bookworms aren't people who love to read. They are people who treat books as treasures. Anonymous

Bette A. Stevens

#100. Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism.

Bette Davis