Bette Quotations

I've been close to Bette Davis for thirty-eight years - and I have the cigarette burns to prove it.

I'd love to play a femme fatale in a film noir. I'm thinking of one of those roles that Lauren Bacall or Bette Davis might have played. What I wouldn't like is to suddenly find myself being cast, as many senior actresses seem to be, as the abbess in a convent.

A lot of people have called me the black Bette Midler, and I regard that as a compliment.

Liberace was a miracle. You talk about who he was and what he did, and then you look at who he inspired, from Elton John to Cher to Michael Jackson to Bette Midler. There are so many people that came to see him. Elvis was there, watching his shows.

Oh, yes, we were on location with Another Man's Poison, which I wrote for Bette Davis.

If it weren't for Liberace, there would be no Madonna or Lady Gaga, Elton John, Bette Midler, or Elvis because it was Liberace who helped the King glitz up his act.

I always loved the bad girls in the movies. I loved Bette Davis; I loved Katherine Hepburn. I loved Ava Gardner.

I met Bette Midler, who I absolutely love.

When I was a kid, it was Bette Davis. She was my idol. I used to cut school and sit in the back of the theater; of course, I would have snuck in because I couldn't afford a ticket.

I'd watch old movies with Judy Garland, Shirley Temple and Bette Davis and long to be part of that glamorous world. A lot of that glamour is gone now. In my own small way, I hope I'm bringing some of it back. But it would be great if I could inspire women to dress up.

She's one of the best actresses I've ever met, and she's just going to get better, ... She's going to be like Bette Davis, and she's a real little girl, too. She's not like a little robot who can do all that stuff.

Hats off to Bette Van Dahl and to all the parents and staff who made this program possible.

I love beautiful black-and-white movies - anything Bette Davis, especially 'Now', 'Voyager', 'Casablanca', 'Mildred Pierce'; anything by Orson Welles, Truffaut, or Godard; and 'Paper Moon' by Peter Bogdanovich.

I always felt that Bette Davis was one of the great screen actresses who never really got her due - she won two Oscars, but the last was in 1938, and that was really before all the great work that she did.

I always loved Bette Davis-she's probably my very favorite. She had an influence on me in that I felt I knew what she was thinking. She was thinking the things she wanted me to know about. When you're in extreme close-up, all you have to do is think, and the thoughts will read.

Just watching Bette Davis on the screen was empowering to women, I think. Certainly was to me. It was like: This is what's possible. This is the range and depth that is possible for a woman.

Working with Dakota's not exactly like working with a kid. She's a remarkable actor. ... Bette Davis was probably like that when she was a little girl, and I think she'll amaze us for years.

Bette Davis. I imagine that's what she was like when she was young. I think that this girl's going to amaze us for a long time.

Bette Jane Wogen ... (has) earned the respect and thanks of the citizens of our county for her generous contributions to history, ... (She) sets an example for all to follow.

Back in the days of Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis, beauty wasn't the be-all and end-all it is today.

I keep saying that, if Samuel L. Jackson and Bette Davis could have a baby, it would be Taraji P. Henson. To me, she's one of the greatest character actors of our generation, let alone leading ladies. She's just phenomenal in everything she does.

I'm very happy to accept this gift now that it is an articulated program. Where's Bette when you need her?

In the first half of last year, you had a lot of the big tours early - Madonna, Prince, Bette Midler, Simon and Garfunkel. This year it's backloaded . . . that's just the way it worked out.

It's weird, because American films in the 1930s and '40s, particularly melodramas, were made for woman, from Bette Davis to Joan Crawford to Barbara Stanwyck to Katherine Hepburn, and for some reason we've taken a step backward in this sense.

I don't think I had the aspiration to be a star growing up. I loved Madonna and Bette Midler, and I had my karaoke machine and would sing their songs.

Any of Bette Midler's concerts should be required viewing for every actor/performer. She has the audience in the palm of her hands at all times and can switch emotions on a dime: Great singer, great actress, great comedian - fearless.

You know, I've known most of these people either well or slightly. And I think they're pretty terrific. I, even I had good experiences with Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, who were, you know, talk about divas. They were divas.

There will be no 'Mommie Dearest' in the lives of my children, and no books like the one the Crosby boy wrote about Bing, or Bette Davis's daughter has written. My children love me very much, and they are loved.