Lauren Bacall Quotes

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.

I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.

I am not a has-been. I am a will-be.

Life is amazing, life is odd. Life is not what you expected it to be. Things happen... Growing up takes longer than you think.

You don't always win your battles, but it's good to know you fought.

Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world.

There are guys who want to screw around all the time, which interests me not at all. God knows we've done that, been there, and we don't want to do that any more.

Legends are all to do with the past and nothing to do with the present.

Growing up takes longer than you think.

Stardom isn't a profession, it's an accident.

One thing I am convinced of is that the more you do, the more you can do.

I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing.

The best things in life are clean living, good works, and big saphires. And not in that order.

If there was one thing I had never been, it was mysterious, and if there was one thing I had never done, it was not talk.

Find me a man who's interesting enough to have dinner with and I'll be happy.

A man's illness is his private territory and, no matter how much he loves you and how close you are, you stay an outsider. You are healthy.

Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind.

No, I don't like legend. I mean, I don't like the category. And to begin with, to me, a legend is something that is not on the Earth, that is dead

I am essentially a loner.

A woman isn't complete without a man. But where do you find a man - a real man - these days?

No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it.

I've always felt that work - learning from people who know more than I know - is what keeps you going.

It's not an old movie if you haven't seen it.

How in hell can you handle love without turning your life upside down? That's what love does, it changes everything.

When a woman reaches twenty-six in America, she's on the slide. It's downhill all the way from then on. It doesn't give you a tremendous feeling of confidence and well-being.

In Hollywood, an equitable divorce settlement means each party getting fifty percent of publicity.

When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behavior is so shocking.

If goodness is its own reward, shouldn't we get a little something for being naughty?

It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it's kind of a sickness.

Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life.

You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what's happening now.

I find that through the sad times, work is what made my continuing, not breaking down, possible. In work, I was always someone else and I subconsciously reveled in that.

I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look.

We live in an age of mediocrity. Stars today are not the same stature as Bogie [Humphrey Bogart], James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart [James Stewart].

Isn't hope an incredible, a wonderfully demented thing?

I figure if I have my health, can pay the rent and I have my friends, I call it 'content.'

Life is not what you expected it to be.

I am not a wealthy woman. I wish to hell I was, but I never had a wealthy man.

How many women do we know who were continually kissed by Clark Gable, William Powell, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy and Fredric March? Only one: Myrna Loy...

God if the press ever quoted anyone correctly it would be brilliant.

I'm a total Democrat. I'm anti-Republican. And it's only fair that you know it... I'm liberal. The L word!

I'm not a sedentary person. I've always been active.

In the world of relationships, possibly the most complicated, uncommon, hard to find, hard to keep and most rewarding has got to be friendship.

The industry is s**t, it's the medium that's great.

Remember what Bogie and my mother both used to say: 'Character is the most important thing. All that matters is character!'

You realize yourself when you start reflecting - because I don't live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are - that you can't ignore it. But I don't look at scrapbooks.

I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it.

Young people, even in Hollywood, ask me, 'Were you really married to Humphrey Bogart?' 'Well, yes, I think I was,' I reply.

I always brought up my children not to believe in Mothers Day gifts, and now I regret it.

Men need to feel important. They feel better when they're with younger girls or unknown girls.