Ava Gardner Quotes

I wish to live to 150 years old, but the day I die, I wish it to be with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.

When I'm old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music, and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in.

Women's liberation as a movement makes some valid points. But in the final analysis, it doesn't matter who wears the pants - as long as there's money in the pockets.

If I had my life to live over again, I'd live it the same way. Maybe a few changes here or there, but nothing special. The truth is, honey, I've enjoyed my life. I've had a hell of a good time.

It’s a pity nobody believes in simple lust anymore.

I do everything for a reason. Most of the time the reason is money.

Although no one believes me, I have always been a country girl and still have a country girl's values

Elizabeth Taylor is not beautiful, she is pretty—I was beautiful.

What I'd really like to say about stardom is that it gave me everything I never wanted.

I don't mind growing old. If I have to go before my time, this is how I'll go-- cigarette in one hand, glass of scotch in the other.

When I lose my temper, honey, you can't find it any place.

Petting is the study of the anatomy in braille.

I either write the book or sell the jewels. And I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels.

I have only one rule in acting - trust the director and give him heart and soul.

Doing nothing feels like floating on warm water to me. Delightful, perfect.

All I have going is my looks. When my beauty goes, I'm through.

Fame gives you everything you never wanted.

I want to remember it all, the good times and the bad times, the late nights, the boozing, the dancing into dawns, and all the great and not-so-great people I met and loved in those years.

After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: “She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!”

Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldn't have been more wrong

I am deeply superficial.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Fame and fortune does not mean anything if you don't have a happy home.

Sing me not a song; let me hear your recital of veneration and respect; this I will listen to over and over when I share your need of pleasing.

Hollywood - that's a place where love is viewed both pragmatically and philosophically in the saying, 'Tis better to have loved and divorced than never to have had any publicity at all.

I think the main reason my marriages failed is that I always loved too well but never wisely.

I must have seen more sunrises than any other actress in the history of Hollywood.

For the loot, honey, for the loot.

He will always be my Sir Galahad.

So this was where lust was satisfied. If I'd been an old-time miner I'd have asked for my gold nugget back.

I was lazy. I would have been a hell of a lot better actress had I taken it more seriously. I never had the proper respect for acting. Quite often, I learned my lines on the way to the studio.

God knows I've got so many frailties myself, I ought to be able to understand and forgive them in others. But I don't.

I was never an actress -- none of us kids at Metro were. We were just good to look at.

I hate cheating. I won’t put up with it. I don’t do it myself.

I thought I was making fifty dollars a week [at MGM], but it turned out to be $35 because twelve weeks of the year you were on layoff. It was white slavery, and it lasted for seventeen years.

I couldn't imagine a better place [Australia] for making a film on the end of the world.

After my screen test the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled "She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!"

And I won 'em back fair and square. So what are you going to do about it? Want to fight? Who wants the first bloody nose?