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Lauren Bacall Quotes (1924-2014)
Actress
About Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske; 16 September 1924 - 12 August 2014) was an American film and stage actress. She was the wife of Humphrey Bogart until his death, and later married Jason Robards.
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βImagination is the highest kite that can fly.β
βNicole and I worked together on Dogville and we were friends when we started this. That laid the groundwork for our fabulous relationship on screen and off.β
βWhen you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise. His whole behavior is so shocking. 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.β
βThat's absolutely one of my most favorite movies, for so many reasons. I fought for that part; I wanted it badly. I took a lower salary, I did everything. Grace Kelly said, "I'll never forgive you for playing that part. It was written for me". She [Kelly] got the prince [Rainier], I got the part.β
βLosing Bogey was horrible, obviously. Because he was young. And because he gave me my life. I wouldn't have had a β I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't met him β I would have had a completely different kind of life. He changed me, he gave me everything. And he was an extraordinary man.β
βThe 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.β
βBacall: I'm a total Democrat. I'm anti-Republican. And it's only fair that you know it. Even though...
King: Wait a minute. Are you a liberal?
Bacall: I'm a liberal. The "L" word!
King: Egads!
Bacall: β¦ I love it. 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... I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say "The L word". I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group.β
King: Wait a minute. Are you a liberal?
Bacall: I'm a liberal. The "L" word!
King: Egads!
Bacall: β¦ I love it. 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... I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say "The L word". I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group.β
βHow 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... And to meet whom did Franklin D. Roosevelt find himself tempted to call off the Yalta Conference? Myrna Loy. And to see what lady in what picture did John Dillinger risk coming out of hiding to meet his bullet-ridden death in an alley in Chicago? Myrna Loy, in Manhattan Melodrama.β
βI love Nicole. Nicole and I happen to be very great friends. Besides that, the press never get it straight. They do not print what you say... We were in Venice for Birth at the Venice Film Festival. And you know when you have a day when you go from one room to another with the roundtables with about five journalists sitting around at each table throwing questions at you all the time. So in one of these rooms, I'm sitting there. And one of the journalists said, you're an icon and Nicole Kidman's an icon and what do you think about that? And I said, why do you have to burden her with the category? She's a young woman. She's got her whole career ahead of her. Why does she have to be pegged as an icon or as anything? Let her enjoy her time. Don't, you know, suddenly put her in a slot. And that was all I said. The word "legend" never came up. It was "icon."β
What Lauren Bacall Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Lauren Bacall shared regarding contemporaries.
Lauren Bacall on Tom Cruise
Lauren Bacall on Humphrey Bogart
βLosing Bogey was horrible, obviously. Because he was young. And because he gave me my life. I wouldn't have had a β I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't met him β I would have had a completely different kind of life. He changed me, he gave me everything. And he was an extraordinary man.β
Lauren Bacall on Nicole Kidman
βI love Nicole. Nicole and I happen to be very great friends. Besides that, the press never get it straight. They do not print what you say... We were in Venice for Birth at the Venice Film Festival. And you know when you have a day when you go from one room to another with the roundtables with about five journalists sitting around at each table throwing questions at you all the time. So in one of these rooms, I'm sitting there. And one of the journalists said, you're an icon and Nicole Kidman's an icon and what do you think about that? And I said, why do you have to burden her with the category? She's a young woman. She's got her whole career ahead of her. Why does she have to be pegged as an icon or as anything? Let her enjoy her time. Don't, you know, suddenly put her in a slot. And that was all I said. The word "legend" never came up. It was "icon."β
Quotes About Lauren Bacall
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Stephen Bogart on Lauren Bacall
Anne Billson on Lauren Bacall
β[I]t was her modelling career that took off before the acting one when she was introduced to the Harper's Bazaar columnist Diana Vreeland by none other than Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg β not just an editor at the magazine but also a former actor who had played the leading role in Carl Dreyer's classic Vampyr (1932).β
Govindini Murty on Lauren Bacall
βIt could be that today's conservative movement remains in thrall to the same narrative that has defined its attitude toward film and the arts for decades. Inspired by feelings of exclusion after Hollywood and the popular culture turned leftward in the '60s and '70s, this narrative has defined the film industry as an irredeemably liberal institution toward which conservatives can only act in oppositionβnever engagement. Ironically, this narrative ignores the actual history of Hollywood, in which conservatives had a strong presence from the industry's founding in the early 20th century up through the '40s, '50s and into the mid-'60s]. The conservative Hollywood community at that time included such leading directors as Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, and Cecil B. DeMille, and major stars like John Wayne, Clark Gable, and Charlton Heston. These talents often worked side by side with notable Hollywood liberals like directors Billy Wilder, William Wyler, and John Huston, and stars like Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Spencer Tracy. The richness of classic Hollywood cinema is widely regarded as a testament to the ability of these two communities to work together, regardless of political differences.β
About Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske; 16 September 1924 - 12 August 2014) was an American film and stage actress. She was the wife of Humphrey Bogart until his death, and later married Jason Robards.