Actors' quotes about success and career

“When I saw my first film test I ran from the projection room screaming.”
Bette Davis

“If you can't make a career out of two de Milles, you'll never do it.”
Charlton Heston On Cecil Blount DeMille

“I'm a professional. I've done pretty well, don't you think? I've survived in a pretty rough business.”
Humphrey Bogart

“The monster was the best friend I ever had.”

Boris Karloff

“I was fortunate to be born with a set of characteristics that were in the public vogue.”
Katharine Hepburn

“What the star-system represents is a typical sickness in our society — competition, competition success-oriented.”
Jane Seymour Fonda

“I decided to become a genius. Hollywood was full of 'yes-men', so I decided to become a 'no-man'.”
Darryl Francis Zanuck

“I have complete control over everything I do. A year or two back, this was considered to be some kind of victory of Art over Tyranny. Now I'm not so sure.”
Gregory Peck

“Ah, that sad and bewildering moment when you are no longer the cherished darling, but must turn the corner and try to be funny.”
Billie Burke

“Sometimes I just crave to play in Shakespeare again.”
Basil Rathbone

“I never achieved my first goal in the National Actors Theatre, which is to have a permanent Acting Company.”
Tony Randall

“Awards sell tickets, and they're a clever publicity stunt.”
Tony Randall

“I make two movies a year to take care of the butcher and the baker and the school fees. Then I try to write, but it's not that easy. Acting is what's easy.”
David Niven

“I really have to keep an eye on myself, because sometimes I think I might say something important.”
Leslie William Nielsen

“Every actor looks all his life for a part that will combine his talents with his personality.”
Walter Matthau

“I wanted to be a pharmacist. I liked the way our local pharmacist was always dressed in a nice white coat; he looked very calm, you'd give him money, and he'd give you something that you wanted to buy.”
Walter Matthau

“I kept the same suit for six years and the same dialogue. They just changed the title of the picture and the leading lady.”
Robert Mitchum

“I know what's good for me. I can't play black or gray. I can't be a villain or anything close to one. I have to play white.”
Alan Ladd

“I'd rather be David Ladd's father than Alan Ladd any day.”
Alan Ladd

“I'm the most insecure guy in Hollywood. If you had it good all your life, you figure it can't ever get bad, but when you had it bad, you wonder how long a thing like this will last.”
Alan Ladd

“I was such a new star he could have ended my career within fifteen minutes after I walked out of that office. I had no interest in being a waiter.”

Clark Gable

“I've made 122 movies, and I dare say there's a picture of mine showing somewhere in the world every day.”
Tony Curtis

“The Pulitzer is a common prize that means very little.”
Richard Harris

“It was a huge success and I got an Oscar for it, though I don’t think it made an enormous difference in my career.”

Alec Guinness

“He agreed with me. What I didn’t tell him was that I just couldn’t go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I’d had enough of the mumbo-jumbo. I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) to me.”

Alec Guinness On George Lucas