Quotes from Joan Crawford

Regular exercise, all alone, can be boring. If you just can't schedule it for yourself, organize a little neighborhood club. Get all those pleasingly-plump pals together regularly at a certain hour on certain days of the week—and compete. Competition is often just the stimulus you need.

Treat your neck the same way you do your face.

Treat your neck the same way you do your face. It's a delicate area, and the first to betray age.

Facial muscles can sag quickly, but there are some easy ways of keeping them toned up. Each one of the following takes just about ten seconds. You've got THAT much time! 1. Open your mouth as wide as you can and at the same time purse your lips as if you're trying to whistle. Hold it for ten seconds. 2. Put your thumb and forefinger inside your mouth and try to push your fingers out--at the same time forcing your cheeks in. Hold for another count of ten.

Hair that has been colored is susceptible to the sun. [...] Sun isn't kind to the skin either, even though a tan is so attractive. After a woman reaches thirty she should get her tan out of a bottle - with a good base - and protect her skin and hair from the direct rays of the summer sun.

I've heard of women who started beauty parlors in a spare room, or thrift shops, or who took courses to become real-estate brokers. Others have special talents or college training that they can put to use on a part-time basis. Any woman can start a childcare center.

Once we demanded two chickens in every pot, then two cars in every garage. Now families want two homes—one a retreat for weekends and vacations—and maybe a boat or an airplane. So it follows that they need two pay checks.

A home-bound woman who depends on bridge clubs and shopping sprees for amusement has only half a personality.

But charm is not only being soft-spoken, relaxed, and at ease; it's wanting to be a giver. Wanting to be a good listener. Responding, communicating, having a genuine interest in people. It's having a good memory for amusing things so that you're a happy person to be with. Charm is grace — graciousness. And it all has to be real — good manners and good manners of the heart. Charm is a touch of magic. Try to make it a part of your way of life.

Necklines usually need attention. A high neck just can't help getting powder smudges. For washables Mamacita lays the collar on the counter in the kitchen and uses a special spot cleaner along the soiled area. She lets it sit for ten minutes and then plunges the whole garment into cold water with cold-water liquid soap.

Understate—or as Valentina said, 'diminish.' Let your face be more important than your costume. If you think you may be wearing too much jewelry, you are. Ask your husband how he thinks you look. If he says, 'That's a lovely dress,' try again. What he should say is, 'You look lovely!

Perhaps if my story were put in the proper perspective it might be one of many lonely years punctuated by attempts to find an outlet for all the love I've had to give. I had my blessed children to come home to, but they couldn't fill all of the void. When I tucked them into bed I'd wonder why it had turned out like this. Believe me, it was not self-pity, ever.

For ten years I was alone, I filled the days with work, with the children, and with a few good friends. And I made a friend of myself. To have a friend you have to be one. You have to learn to like yourself—which usually means getting over a few had habits. I'm sure that I grew a little wiser, and I learned something about faith.

I sit on hard chairs — soft ones spread the hips. Unlike Oscar Levant, who said he never stood when he could sit and never sat when he could lie down, I stand and walk as much as I can. I don't think any of us walk enough, especially those of us who have desk work to do. When the work is done, the day is gone, and we take the shortest (sitting-down) route home. A walk before bedtime is the best cure for insomnia as well as a way of getting a little more exercise.

Food! I say 'No, thank you' to many lovely things every day. Recently I admired the slim figure of a magazine editor. 'That's your formula?' I asked her. 'I starve,' she sighed. 'I'm the hungriest woman in New York.

Of course every woman tries to be a good mother, and then wonders if, after all her best efforts, her children will wind up on a headshrinker's couch complaining about bad treatment.

When they were old enough to stand on a stool at the sink they washed out their shoelaces and polished their little white shoes every day before putting them away. They hung up their clothes if they were clean—which wasn't very often.

Both of my twins are a long way from Hollywood, but when they get together they reminisce about their childhood with, they assure me, a great deal of nostalgia. They tell people they had a marvelous childhood. I hope they all did. I tried to give them that—because it's really all that a parent can do. A parent has to guide, advise, educate, and love them. If they're sure of the love, they'll accept the guidance.

Often there's no help in the home, but there are neighbors and friends and the people at nurseries and day-care centers. All of them help a child to learn to get along with all sorts of people and become more independent. Seeing people encourages him to make decisions for himself. When he sees his parents at his own special time of the day he enjoys them more than if they were underfoot all the time.

I was a working mother, and making films is a time-consuming job, but I found time to expose children to all facets of life, all sorts of experiences. […] They learned all sorts of sports to find out what they liked the best. Helen Hayes once said that the essential thing was to introduce children to life, and then let them make their own decisions.

Men who are prejudiced against women in executive positions have usually had a bad experience with one who swaggered in with a chip on her manly shoulder believing that she had to fight her way up, and fight men to do it. A gal like that can make it tough for the rest of us. Many in the women's liberation movement have done that—but few of them are executives and few are very good to look at. They have nothing to lose but their uncombed hair.

People ask me if I turn up at board meetings wearing tailored costumes in muted colors. Oh no, I say. I wear hot and shocking pink and lovely hats. I don't think any man ever did a poor job because he had an attractively dressed woman to look at. In fact, the sight probably challenges him to be his most brilliant self. But when it comes to the routine of the meeting I do exactly what the men do.

Thecla Haldane is a freelance photographer, […] flying around the world in jet aircraft covering news events and wars along with thousands male photographers. […] Her formula is, 'Conduct yourself like a lady, and you're always treated like one.' She's never 'one of the boys.

As for the other little amenities — yes, the lady lets the man light her cigarette, help her on with her coat, and open the door for her. Even if he's the boss. Manners are manners, and success doesn't mean that a woman has to forgo the courtesies that make life easy and pleasant.