Gene Tierney

“It is difficult to write about any form of mental disease, especially your own, without sounding as if you were examining a bug under glass.”

“In later years, I craved foods that were almost always fattening.”

“Cars, furs, and gems were not my weaknesses.”

“The Howard Hughes I knew began to change after his plane crash in 1941.”

“The word actress has always seemed less a job description to me than a title.”

“I do not recall spending long hours in front of a mirror loving my reflection.”

“I ask myself: Would I have been any worse off if I had stayed home or lived on a farm instead of shock treatments and medication?”

“It was the fashion of the time, still is, to feel that all actors are neurotic, or they would not be actors.”

“I had no romantic interest in Gable. I considered him an older man.”

“I followed the same diet for 20 years, eliminating starches, living on salads, lean meat, and small portions.”

“I knew I could not cope with the future unless I was able to rediscover the past.”

“Rehearsals and screening rooms are often unreliable because they can't provide the chemistry between an audience and what appears on the stage or screen.”

“I am not the kind of woman who excuses her mistakes while reminding us of what used to be.”

“I approached everything, my job, my family, my romances, with intensity.”

“The main cause of my difficulties stemmed from the tragedy of my daughter's unsound birth and my inability to face my feelings.”

“When you have spent an important part of your life playing Let's Pretend, it's often easy to see symbolism where none exists.”

“Everyone should see Hollywood once, I think, through the eyes of a teenage girl who has just passed a screen test.”

“Life is a little like a message in a bottle, to be carried by the winds and the tides.”

“Wealth, beauty, and fame are transient. When those are gone, little is left except the need to be useful.”

“I was plunged into what was known as the debutante social whirl. This was one of the ways fathers justified their own hard work and sacrifices.”