Quotes

Hell, I ain't paid to make good lines sound good. I'm paid to make bad lines sound good.

I was certainly a better actor after my five years in Hollywood. I had learned to be natural - never to exaggerate. I found I could act on the stage in just the same way as I had acted in a studio: using my ordinary voice, eliminating gestures, keeping everything extremely simple.

[upon accepting his Academy Award for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)] in 1949] Many years ago . . . many, MANY years ago [laughter from the audience] I brought up a boy, and I said to him, "Son, if you ever become a writer, try to write a good part for your old man sometime". Well, by cracky, that's what he did!

Barbara Stanwyck loved doing westerns more than anything where she had to dress up frilly and chase after a man. At heart, she's a cowgirl. Or a cowboy--she's one of the toughest, most no-nonsense women in this town, and she stopped playing the old cat-and-mouse game years ago.

Son, give 'em a good show, and always travel first class.