Olivia De Havilland Quotes

"Famous people feel that they must perpetually be on the crest of the wave, not realising that it is against all the rules of life. You can't be on top all the time, it isn't natural."

"I loved France, although I initially thought they were stubborn for always speaking French."

"I was naturalized right before Pearl Harbor. Nine days later, I would have been classified as an enemy alien. I might have been sent to a camp."

"I feel like a survivor from an age that people no longer understand. I want to try to explain what the 1930s - the golden age of Hollywood - was truly like. People forget that America was such a different place then, not yet the dominant force in the world."

"I was quite thin, and I didn't have to worry until I had my appendix out and a mysterious metabolic change occurred."

"There are no words to describe my feelings for Errol Flynn."

"I read the Scriptures at the American Cathedral on Christmas and Easter; that's it. It's a task I love."

"Playing good girls in the 30s was difficult, when the fad was to play bad girls. Actually I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress."

"I had a very big crush on Errol Flynn during 'Captain Blood.' I thought he was absolutely smashing for three solid years, but he never guessed. Then he had one on me but nothing came of it. I'm not going to regret that; it could have ruined my life."

"The one thing that you simply have to remember all the time that you are there, is that Hollywood is an oriental city. As long as you do that you might survive. If you try to equate it with anything else you'll perish."

"The TV business is soul crushing, talent destroying and human being destroying."

"We were like a stock company at Warners. We didn't know any of the stars from the other studios."

"There certainly is such a thing as screen chemistry, although I don't believe you find it frequently."

"I don't need a fantasy life as once I did. That is the life of the imagination that I had a great need for. Films were the perfect means for satisfying that need."

"I was just a mini-star when we did 'Gone With the Wind.'"

"I don't feel the cold. It's my British blood!"

"If I watch 'Gone With the Wind,' I always find it interesting. I think, 'What's going to happen next? What's that character going to do?' But you know, you never really need to watch the films you made again. They stay inside you, always with you."

"I wanted to be what my high-school civics and history teacher thought of as a good American. That automatically involved taking an interest in government."

"I'm all for typewriters, with instant carbon copies, and seeing films in cinemas."

"I am attracted by almost any French word - written or spoken. Before I knew its meaning, I thought 'saucisson' so exquisite that it seemed the perfect name to give a child - until I learned it meant 'sausage!'"

"By 1951, television had already made such inroads on the income garnered by motion picture companies that the Golden Era which had prevailed until then was beginning to disintegrate. And by 1953, it had come to an end. Hollywood was a dismal, tragic place."

"When I was five, I discovered a secret box that contained Mummy's stage makeup. It was like finding buried treasure. I tried the rouge, the eye shadow, the lipstick. But I couldn't get the rouge off. Mummy spanked me terribly."

"I wouldn't wish overnight success on anyone. You have no real friends. Everyone works endless hours at different studios, so far apart. Even on your own lot, relationships were formal and often competitive."

"How many women in this world are served breakfast in bed every morning by a gorgeous young man? I am. So how do I feel about older age? Crazy about it! Wouldn't trade it for anything!"

"What bothered me was playing one-dimensional parts in films which were really about, 'Boy Meets Girl,' 'Will Boy Get Girl?'"

"I'm certainly relishing the idea of living a century. Can you imagine that? What an achievement."

"All of Hollywood was convinced that 'Gone with the Wind' would be a colossal disaster and rather hoped it would be."

"I would watch anything with Meryl Streep in it."

"I have the idea that anyone who has ever heard my name has the distinct impression that I was put under the sod years ago just before they buried Lillian Russell."

"Even if you're not Christian, just from being in our culture you know Jesus and resurrection and redemption."