“Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why Joan Crawford always plays ladies.”

-Bette Davis 

Cary Grant & his third wife, actress Betsy Drake (via corbis)

[On her reaction to rumors that her husband was gay] “Why would I believe that Cary was homosexual when we were busy fucking? Maybe he was bisexual. He lived 43 years before he met me. I don’t know what he did.”

-the non-word-mincing Betsy Drake

[When she was asked to take over Joan Crawford’s role in Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte] “No, thank you. I can just about stand looking at Joan Crawford’s face at six o’clock in the morning, but not Bette Davis.”

-Vivien Leigh 

“Sure I was glad to see John Wayne win the Oscar. I’m always glad to see the fat lady win the Cadillac on TV, too.”

-Robert Mitchum

Katharine Hepburn, looking quite pleased with her pantsuit, at the Hotel Australia, Sydney (1955, via)

From Hepburn’s 1981 interview with Barbara Walters:

Hepburn: “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man…I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to and I made enough money to support myself. And I ain’t afraid of being alone.”

Walters: “Is that why also you wear pants?”

Hepburn: “No, I just wore pants because they’re comfortable.”

Walters: “Do you ever wear a skirt, by the way?”

Hepburn: “I have one.”

Walters: “You have one.”

Hepburn: “I’ll wear it to your funeral.”

(Excerpt quoted above can be seen on youtube here)