“Dancing in Tijuana when I was 13–that was my ‘summer camp.’ How else do you think I could keep up with Fred Astaire when I was 19?”

“After all, a girl is . . . well, a girl. It’s nice to be told you’re successful at it.”

“We are all tied to our destiny and there is no way we can liberate ourselves.”

“Sensitive, shy–of course I was. The fun of acting is to become someone else.”

“Movies were much better in the days when I was doing them.”

“If he could have ever been in love with anyone, I think Harry Cohn was secretly in love with me.”

“Men fell in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me.”

“I think all women have a certain elegance about them which is destroyed when they take off their clothes.”

“I like having my picture taken and being a glamorous person. Sometimes when I find myself getting impatient, I just remember the times I cried my eyes out because nobody wanted to take my picture at the Trocadero.”

“I’m an afternoon person.”

“What surprises me in life are not the marriages that fail, but the marriages that succeed.”

“Just because I was married to Aly Khan, people think I’m rich. Well, I’m not. I never got a dime from Aly or from any of my husbands.”

“I’ve had a lot of unhappiness in my life–and a lot of happiness. Who doesn’t? Maybe I’ve learned enough to be able to guide my daughters.”

“Every actor, every director, everybody needs an Oscar. You have to have that little statue in Hollywood, or else you’re nothing!”

“I did not have everything from life. I’ve had too much!”

“All I wanted was just what everybody else wants, you know, to be loved.”

“When you’re in love, you’re living; you matter.”

“Whatever you write about me, don’t make it sad.”

“I always considered myself as a comedienne who could dance.”

“Two things.” (Her answer to the question what had held up her black satin dress in Gilda.)