Marlene Dietrich Quotes (1901-1992)

“You can't live without illusions even if you must fight for them. Such as "love conquers all." It's not true, but I would like it to be so.”

“I love them because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognizedly wiser than oneself.”

“She is brave, beautiful, loyal, kind and generous. She is never boring and is as lovely looking in a GI shirt, pants and combat boots as she is at night or on the screen. She has an honesty and a comic and tragic sense of life that never let her be truly happy unless she loves. When she loves she can joke about it; but it is gallows humor.”

“Marlene Dietrich is a professional – a professional actress, a professional dress designer, a professional cameraman.”

“One of the things about her that astonished me the most was her knowledge of the technical side of motion pictures. She seemed to know everything. She constantly watched the camera and the lighting, and she would politely superintend, make suggestions to the cameraman and gaffers so subtly and so sexily that no one was offended, and she got precisely what she wanted. (I didn't mind.; what possible difference could it make which side of my face was photographed? Both sides were equally homely.) She was one of the first actresses I ever knew to have her own makeup table and mirror placed in the same lights in which she would have to play—a trick she told me Von Sternberg had taught her. Between takes she was constantly in front of the mirror, adjusting her hair and her makeup, and the instant the director called her, she was ready.”