Quotes by Ava Gardner

“I think the main reason my marriages failed is that I always loved too well but never wisely.”

“Whats the point? My face, shall we say, looks lived in.”

“Some people say Liz and I are whores, but we are saints. We do not hide our loves hypocritically, and when in love, we are loyal and faithful to our men. [On the subject of her multiple marriages]”

“For the loot, honey, for the loot.”

“I couldnt imagine a better place [Australia] for making a film on the end of the world.”

“I suffered, I really suffered, with all three of my husbands. And I tried damn hard with all three, starting each marriage certain that it was going to last until the end of my life. Yet none of them lasted more than a year or two.”

“After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: She cant talk! She cant act! Shes sensational!”

“Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldnt have been more wrong.”

Im here to tell you, there aint much forgiveness in that old-time religion. That particular savior was a mean son of a bitch. If you sinned, honey, he was going to get you, no doubt about it.

And the news got worse. It appeared that there was this whole other person Jesus Christ whose birthday a lot of people tended to confuse with mine. I was personally outraged. It was a long time before I forgave the Lord for that.

I wish to live to 150 years old, but the day I die, I wish it to be with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.

When you have to face up to the fact that marriage to the man you love is really over, thats very tough, sheer agony. In that kind of harrowing situation, I always go away and cut myself off from the world. Also, I sober up immediately when there is genuine bad news in my life; I never face it with alcohol in my brain. I just rented a house in Palm Springs and sat there and just suffered for a couple of weeks. I suffered there until I was strong enough to face it.

Maybe, in the final analysis, they saw me as something I wasnt and I tried to turn them into something they could never be. I loved them all but maybe I never understood any of them. I dont think they understood me.

Sex isnt all that important, but it is when you love someone very much.

God knows Ive got so many frailties myself, I ought to be able to understand and forgive them in others. But I dont.

Dont think for a minute that bad publicity and endless criticism dont leave their claw marks on everyone concerned. Your friends try to cheer you up by saying lightly, I suppose you get used to it, and ignore it. You try. You try damned hard. But you never get used to it. It always wounds and hurts.

He always called me Daughter. It was to distinguish me from his sister Ava. I loved being called Daughter. It sounded so possessive, and to be possessed when you are a child is just a wonderful feeling. It makes you feel safe. It makes you feel loved.

So this was where lust was satisfied. If Id been an old-time miner Id have asked for my gold nugget back.

Go fuck yourself, I replied, always the lady. Im staying here.

And I won em back fair and square. So what are you going to do about it? Want to fight? Who wants the first bloody nose?