Quotes from Ava Gardner

I have only one rule in acting - trust the director and give him heart and soul.

The truth is, honey, I've enjoyed my life. I've had a hell of a good time.

When I'm old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music, and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in.

Sex isn't all that important, but it is when you love someone very much.

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 I lose my temper, honey, you can't find it any place.

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

When you have to face up to the fact that marriage to the man you love is really over, that's 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.

God knows I've got so many frailties myself, I ought to be able to understand and forgive them in others. But I don't.

Maybe, in the final analysis, they saw me as something I wasn't 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 don't think they understood me.

I have only one rule in acting--trust the director, and give him heart and soul.

Hell, I suppose if you stick around long enough they have to say something nice about you.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

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

I want to remember it all, the good times and the bad times, the late nights, the boozing, the dancing into dawns, and all the great and not-so-great people I met and loved in those years…

The truth is that the only time I'm happy is when I'm doing absolutely nothing. I don't understand people who like to work and talk about it like it was some sort of goddamn duty. Doing nothing feel like floating on warm water to me. Delightful, perfect.

I hate cheating. I won't put up with it. I don't do it myself.

Our phone bills were astronomical, and when I found the letters Frank wrote me the other day, the total could fill a suitcase. Every single day during our relationship, no matter where in the world I was, I'd get a telegram from Frank saying he loved me and missed me. He was a man who was deseperate for companionship and love. Can you wonder that he always had mine!

If I had my life to live over again, I'd live it the same way. Maybe a few changes here or there, but nothing special. The truth is, honey, I've enjoyed my life. I've had a hell of a good time.

Great idea, I said. Call the police. Call the fucking police.

Don't think for a minute that bad publicity and endless criticism don't 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.

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?

I'm here to tell you, there ain't 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.

He will always be my Sir Galahad.