116 Quotes by Tallulah Bankhead

Do you know what my ambition is in life? To be without ambition. As far back as I can remember I’ve been absolutely hag-ridden. I’d like to attain the state of mind that the Indians call Nirvana. That, for me, would happen if I were free of ambition.

Don’t be taken in by the guff that critics are killing the theater. Commonly they sin on the side of enthusiasm. Too often they give their blessing to trash.

Will TV kill the theater? If the programs I have seen, save for “Kukla, Fran and Ollie,” the ball games and the fights, are any criterion, the theater need not wake up in a cold sweat.

I’m not at my best when I moralize or philosophize. Logic is elusive, especially to one who so rarely uses it.

The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.

I’d rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.

It’s one of the tragic ironies of the theatre that only one man in it can count on steady work – the night watchman.

I’ve been called many things, but never an intellectual.

Acting is the most insecure of all the trades, the most risky. In their professional lifetime most actors rehearse longer than they play, spend more time traipsing from office to office in search of jobs than they rehearse and play combined.