125 Quotes by Elizabeth Taylor

Big girls need big diamonds.

Put on some lipstick and pull yourself together.

It's all about hope, kindness and a connection with one another.

You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and God damn it, you refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. You curse. Then you go about the business of living. That's how I've done it. There's no other way.

My favorite name for a color is "puce." It's kind of a dried blood color. It's a hideous color. But I love the word. It's so euphonic. But my favorite colors are lavender, purple, periwinkle blue, and white.

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.

I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them.

The beauty of fragrance is that it speaks to your heart and hopefully someone else's.

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I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being - to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame.

Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells.

Success is a great deodorant.

It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.

I have never felt more alive than when I watched my children delight in something, never more alive than when I have watched a great artist perform, and never richer than when I have scored a big check to fight AIDS.

Follow your passions, follow your heart, and the things you need will come.

Money is the best deodorant.

I'm not like anyone. I'm me.

So much is said with the electricity of the eyes, the intensity of a whisper. Less is more.

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You can't cry on a diamond's shoulder, and diamonds won't keep you warm at night, but they're sure fun when the sun shines.

I know I'm vulgar, but would you have me any other way?

I just loved the feeling of flying. I could jump six feet bareback and it was the closest thing to being Pegasus and flying next to God. It's the most liberating freedom-making feeling in the world.

If you can't laugh at yourself, you're cooked!

Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together.

I'm not afraid. Life is just such an adventure to me.

My mother says I didn't open my eyes for eight days after I was born, but when I did, the first thing I saw was an engagement ring. I was hooked.

You can't choose between right and wrong by taking a census.

Originally, we were going to set up a cappuccino bar in the showroom, but we've been so busy, ... We decided when we're old and grey, we're going to set up a coffee shop, and we formed the company about 18 months ago when we thought of the name. It's going to be TLC - Tastes Like Chocolate.

I never face the day without perfume.

I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can't possess radiance, you can only admire it.

It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance.

When people say, 'She's got everything', I've got one answer - I haven't had tomorrow.

You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal.

Michael Jackson is part of my heart. We would do anything for each other.

Now is the time for guts and guile.

Give. Remember always to give. That is the one thing that will make you grow.

I was born with scoliosis. I have a double curvature of the spine, and it's forced me to use a wheelchair because the disease has really taken hold. It really saddens me that I can't ride.

The most sensible thing to do to people you hate is to drink their brandy.

How can money be the root of all evil when shopping is the cure for all sadness?

I've been through it all, baby, I'm mother courage.

I wear perfume even when I’m alone

I am a very committed wife. And I should be committed too - for being married so many times.

I'm a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive.

You are who you are. All you can do in this world is help others to be who they are and better themselves.

Fragrance is an incredibly intimate thing. It can evoke very specific thoughts or memories and is a little different for each person who wears it. I also think it's the most accessible luxury.

The things that are important to me - being a mother, a businesswoman, an activist - are all things that were borne out of great passion.

Michael Jackson is one of the most normal people I know.

When I'm not with the one I love, I love the one I'm with.

You can be fat and still be sexy . It all depends on how you feel about yourself

Everything makes me nervous - except making films.

Look, sweetheart, I can drink you under any goddamn table you want, so don't worry about me.

I think I'm finally growing up - and about time.

Being able to go on location and see the world was the greatest perk of all.

I fell off my pink cloud with a thud.

When you're older, you'll appreciate the advantages of sleeping alone.

If it is not to make the world better what is money for?

I use my fame now when I want to help a cause or other people.

I have the emotions of a child in the body of a woman. I was rushed into womanhood for the movies. It caused me long moments of unhappiness and doubt.

I've always admitted that I'm ruled by my passions.

Any home where there is love constitutes a family and all families should have the same legal rights, including the right to marry and have or adopt children. Why shouldn't gay people be able to live as open and freely as everybody else?

I've only slept with men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?

On Michael Jackson and child stardom: He had one of the worst childhoods ever. I think I had the second.

I'm loud and I'm vulgar, and I wear the pants in the house because somebody's got to, but I am not a monster. I'm not.

I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me.

I have a woman's body and a child's emotions.

It's not the having, it's the getting.

Marilyn Monroe seemed to have a kind of unconscious glow about her physical self that was innocent, like a child. When she posed nude, it was 'Gee, I am kind of, you know, sort of dishy,' like she enjoyed it without being egotistical.

The public library is more than a repository of books. It's a mysterious, wondrous place with the power to change lives.

I gave a very dear friend of mine my humanitarian award. Because you don't need an award to be, or not be, a humanitarian.

What is a genius? What is a living legend? What is a megastar? Michael Jackson -- that's all. And when you think you know him, he gives you more. I think he is one of the finest people to hit this planet, and, in my estimation, he is the true King of Pop, Rock and Soul.

Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.

When you're fat, the world is divided into two groups - people who bug you and people who leave you alone. The funny thing is, supporters and saboteurs exist in either camp.

I suppose when they reach a certain age some men are afraid to grow up. It seems the older the men get, the younger their new wives get.

I believe in the difference between men and women. In fact, I embrace the difference.

If someone's dumb enough to offer me a million dollars to make a picture, I'm certainly not dumb enough to turn it down.

I don't love acting; I love chocolate.

I do enjoy life, I really do. Especially if I wake up the next day.

I've been married too many times. How terrible to change children's affiliations, their affections - to give them the insecurity of placing their trust in someone when maybe that someone won't be there next year.

Why shouldn't gay people be able to live as open and freely as everybody else? What it comes down to, ultimately, is love. How can anything bad come out of love? The bad stuff comes out of mistrust, misunderstanding and, God knows, from hate and from ignorance.

I've come through things that would have felled an ox. That fills me with optimism, not just for myself but for our particular species.

I believe in mind over matter and doing anything you set your mind on.

I prefer rugby to soccer. I enjoy the violence in rugby, except when they start biting each other's ears off.

Marriage is a great institution.

When women stops blushing, she has lost the most powerful weapon of charm.

No matter what happens, I'm loud, noisy, earthy and ready for much more living.

I mean, how many young women get a set of rubies just for doing something wholesome like swimming laps? Or win a diamond ring at Ping-Pong with their husband... ? Well, I did, and for all of these memories and the people in my life I feel blessed.

I've never thought of my jewelry as trophies. I'm here to take care of it and to love it, for we are only temporary custodians of beauty.

Sometimes I think we know too much about our idols and that spoils the dream.

I don't pretend to be an ordinary housewife.

I haven't read any of the autobiographies about me.

It's amazing the gymnastics you can do when you don't want to do something. How you can force yourself against all the forces of nature. I threw myself backward.

Everything was handed to me - looks, fame, wealth, honour, love. I rarely had to fight for anything

A strong film director does leave you to your devices. A strong director allows you to be free and you trust that he's there and he will tell you if you've gone too far. A strong director allows you to be much more experimental and take greater chances than a director who isn't secure within himself.

[On Antony's death] Strange, there has never been... such a silence.

I don't think President Bush is doing anything at all about Aids. In fact, I'm not sure he even knows how to spell Aids.

On Mother's Day: It's just a rip-off, to tell the truth, a chance to sell my perfume and other things that ladies like.

Seems like we always spend the best part of our time just saying goodbye.

The ups and downs, the problems and stress, along with all the happiness, have given me optimism and hope because I am living proof of survival.

I used to think that drinking would help my shyness, but all it did was exaggerate all the negative qualities.

I love to be casual and comfortable, but I also love the easy glamour of wearing jewelry all the time.

I like the connection with fans and people who have been supportive of me. And I love the idea of real feedback and a two-way street, which is very, very modern.

I hate to try to be that person in my own skin, in my own way, in my own head, not through exercises or anything else, just by, I guess, belief, concentration.

I, along with the critics, have never taken myself very seriously.

I find it rather tedious working with some actors who have to go into a corner and bounce up and down, shake their hands and arms, saying to the director, "Just a second - I'll be ready in a few minutes, " while all the other actors are waiting around to get in. Then they say, "OK! I'm ready now." And then they come on and do it exactly the same way they've done it in rehearsal.

All I see in the mirror every morning is a face that needs washing.

I'm not worried about dying. I consult with God, my maker. And I don't have a lot of problems to work out. I'm pretty squared anyway.

I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things.

Acting is, to me now, artificial. Seeing people suffer is real. It couldn't be more real. Some people don't like to look at it in the face because it's painful. But if nobody does, then nothing gets done.

I'm just an instinctive actress, I've never had a lesson in my life.

I hate the idea of always having to interpret other people's ideas and thoughts and words, because I'm very independent and, I guess, a free thinker.

A belly laugh increases the ability of your immune system to fight infections.

Why shouldn't gay people be allowed to be able to marry? Those against gay marriages say marriage should only be between a man and a woman. God, I of all people know that doesn't always work!

I would totally lose myself in the music and be a gypsy. I would go wherever I wanted to in my head - wherever the music took me. My body followed.

I've always preferred animals to little girls or boys. I had my first horse - actually it was a Newfoundland pony - when I was three, and I loved riding, without anyone shackling me - riding bareback as fast as I could.

Thanks Darling for the beautiful flowers and all the prayers. Now can you just get my puppy past security?

I don't have a set pattern. I take things as they come. Usually with a great amount of relish. I just lay back and wait for it to happen. And it usually does.

I've never had an acting lesson. I've never been given techniques. Everything I've done is invented. I just sort of found out [how to do it].

To me, acting is a matter of absolute concentration. You can laugh and giggle with your friends up to the minute the director says, "Action!" Then you snap your mind into shape and into the character that you're playing and relate to the people that you're acting with and forget everybody else that you've been joking with.

Humility, never me; it is a characteristic I expect to find in other people.

Just in case you get pneumonia or die. The dangerous bits are always the last days of shooting.

Richard is a very sexy man. He's got that sort of jungle essence that one can sense." (on Richard Burton)

I want it all quickly 'cause I don't want God to stop and think and wonder if I'm getting more than my share.

Every breath you take today should be with someone else in mind.

I feel like 45. I don't look bad for someone my age, with my history of illnesses and operations and all those anesthetics. When they knock you out, it gives you time to catch up on your beauty sleep.

I've always sung in the shower. Now I make the stage a mental shower in order not to get too uptight and enjoy it.

Acting is fun. It's not my whole life. It's not my entire being. It's secondary to my life. My life is primary. I'm running in the primary, as you know.

I hate being called "Liz", because it can sound like such a hiss.

You can always avert throwing yourself in front of an oncoming train. There is something that just pulls you away - and it has pulled me away, because I'm not dead yet - just at the brink of impact. Sometimes I have been really grazed by that train.

Without homosexuals there'd be no Hollywood.

My forties are the best time I have ever gone through.

I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands. For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else.

Clark Gable was the epitome of the movie star - so romantic, such bearing, such friendliness.

I love going to rock concerts, I love to lose myself in that vast wave of rhythm and body heat and get on the same vibe.

Many in Hollywood viewed the public persona of the young Debbie Reynolds as demure and vulnerable to be a complete facade. Pianist Oscar Levant once quipped, "She's as wistful as an iron factory."

Judaism had absolutely nothing to do with my past marriage to Mike [Todd] or my upcoming marriage to Eddie Fisher, both of whom were Jewish. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time.

There's still so much more to do. I can't sit back and be complacent, and none of us should be. I get around now in a wheelchair, but I get around.

On the film where I didn't get along with the director, I just decided to not speak to him.

Something always made me save myself. Either the Betty Ford Center or going onstage to perform in the theater when many people didn't think I could do it.