I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment a star.

All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year.

I think all this talk about age is foolish. Every time I`m one year older, everyone else is too.

I`ve given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can`t divorce a book.

When I die, my epitaph should read "She Paid the Bills". That`s the story of my private life.

[In 1922] I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it.

[To her mother following her triumphant return to Hollywood in 1924 after making Madame Sans-Gêne (1924) in France] It`s the saddest night of my life. I`m just 26. Where do I go from here?

[On her role in Airport 1975 (1974)] I was holding out for a picture I could take my grandchildren to see, something exciting and contemporary without senseless violence.

[On her pre-Cecil B. DeMille years as a comedienne working for Mack Sennett] I played my comedies like Duse [serious classical actress Eleonora Duse], which is probably why I was so funny.

It`s amazing to find that so many people, who I thought really knew me, could have thought that Sunset Blvd. (1950) was autobiographical. I`ve got nobody floating in my swimming pool.

[On Marlene Dietrich] Her legs may be longer than mine, but unlike me, she doesn`t have 7 grandchildren.

After 16 years in pictures I could not be intimidated easily, because I knew where all the skeletons were buried.

After seven years in one place, not to mention two marriages and 32 pictures, I felt I had earned a vacation.

After years of negotiating, I felt bitter and resentful about Mr. Lasky [Jesse Lasky] and Paramount and I knew I always would.

A crisis arose when several newspapers questioned whether my singing voice was real. I had not sung - they wanted to know why.

All they had to do was put my name on a marquee and watch the money roll in.

As Daddy said, life is 95 percent anticipation.

At 26, I felt myself a victim rather than a victor in the realm of pictures.

By the time I was 15, my mother had turned me into a real clotheshorse.

Every victory is also a defeat.

Hollywood has called me in turn the Clothes Horse, the Old Grey Mare -- and Death of a Saleswoman. Since my comeback in Sunset Blvd. (1950), I`m glad to say they`ve thought up a new title - "Gloss".

[on Erich von Stroheim] The experience of working with him was unlike any I had had in more than 50 pictures. He was so painstaking and slow that I would lose all sense of time, hypnotized by the man`s relentless perfectionism.

Never say never, for if you live long enough, chances are you will not be able to abide by its restrictions. Never is a long, undependable time, and life is too full of rich possibilities to have restrictions placed upon it.

Every victory is also a defeat.

A crisis arose when several newspapers questioned whether my singing voice was real. I had not sung-they wanted to know why.

I played my comedies like Duse, which is probably why I was so funny. (on her pre-deMille years as a comedienne at Mack Sennet)

At 26 I felt myself a victim rather than a victor in the realm of pictures.

After seven years in one place, not to mention two marriages and 32 pictures, I felt I had earned a vacation.

I was holding out for a picture I could take my grandchildren to see, something exciting and contemporary without senseless violence. (On her role in Airport 1975 (1974))

[on Erich Von Stroheim] The experience of working with him was unlike any I had had in more than 50 pictures. He was so painstaking and slow that I would lose all sense of time, hypnotized by the man`s relentless perfectionism.

As Daddy said, life is 95 percent anticipation.

I am big. It`s the pictures that got small

Hollywood has called me in turn the Clothes Horse, the Old Grey Mare -- and Death of a Saleswoman. Since my comeback in "Sunset Boulevard," I`m glad to say they`ve thought up a new title -- Gloss.

By the time I was 15, my mother had turned me into a real clotheshorse.

All they had to do was put my name on a marquee and watch the money roll in.

After years of negotiating, I felt bitter and resentful about Mr. Lasky and Paramount and I knew I always would.

After 16 years in pictures I could not be intimidated easily, because I knew where all the skeletons were buried.

On Marlene Dietrich: "Her legs may be longer than mine, but unlike me, she doesn`t have 7 grandchildren."

It`s amazing to find that so many people, who I thought really knew me, could have thought that `Sunset Boulevard` was autobiographical. I`ve got nobody floating in my swimming pool.

"It`s the saddest night of my life. I`m just twenty six. Where do I go from here?" [Swanson to her mother following her triumphant return to Hollywood in 1925 after making Madame Sans Gene in France.]

I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it." - in 1922

When I die, my epitaph should read: She Paid the Bills. That`s the story of my private life.

I`ve given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can`t divorce a book.

I think all this talk about age is foolish. Every time I`m one year older, everyone else is too.

All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year.

I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment a star.