- I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that's good taste.
- One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore faith in yourself.
- I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it, and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't.
- The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
- I'm not funny. What I am is brave.
- Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead.
- I'd rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not.
- A man who correctly guesses a woman's age may be smart, but he's not very bright.
- In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by.
- [About her meeting Desi Arnaz for the first time]: It wasn't love at first sight. It took a full five minutes.
- Desi (Desi Arnaz) was the great love of my life. I will miss him until the day I die.
- [About Edith Head]: Edie knew the truth about all of us. She knew who had flat fannies and who didn't -- but she never told.
- [on Liza Minnelli] She's a great trouper, Liza, I wish I had her talent. If anybody's going to take over from me, it's her. She's got a mind like a trip hammer and huge vitality. She's great.
- [on Bob Hope] You spell Bob Hope C-L-A-S-S.
- [on Audrey Hepburn] She's a tomboy and a fine comedienne. You'd never think of her being able to do my type of comedy. But she can. She has great energy, frail as she looks. But, well, she's so beautiful, so ethereal, it would be sacrilege to put her through it.
- You were taken in charge and trained. They have none of that today any place. I regret the passing of the studio system. I was very appreciative of it because I had no talent. Believe me. What could I do? I couldn't dance. I couldn't sing. I could talk. I could barely walk. I had no flair. I wasn't a beauty, that's for sure.
- [on Julie Andrews] I mean, you in Britain have some of the best comediennes. Julie Andrews is a comedienne -- oh yes she is!
- [on Buster Keaton] He taught me most of what I know about timing, how to fall and how to handle props and animals.
- [Defending her "singing" performance in the film Mame (1974)] Mame stayed up all night and drank champagne! What did you expect her to sound like? Julie Andrews?
- I have an everyday religion that works for me. Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line.
- [About her friend Maureen O'Hara] Maureen O'Hara is one of the people I love the most out all the people I know.
- Give yourself first and everything else will fall into line.
- [on Vivian Vance] I find that now I usually spend my time looking at Viv. Viv was sensational. And back then, there were things I had to do-I was in the projection room for some reason, and I just couldn't concentrate on it. But now I can. And I enjoy every move that Viv made. She was something.
- Life takes guts.
- I dyed my hair this crazy red to bid for attention. It has become a trademark and I've got to keep it this way.
- [About her drama school experience in 1926] I was a tongue-tied teenager spellbound by the schools star pupil - Bette Davis.
- [on Arnold Schwarzenegger] I take full credit for this man. He's going to become a big star.
- [on Hollywood] When they say no, you hear yes. Someone says we can't do this movie, hug them and say thank you for believing in me.
- In many ways, marrying Desi was one of the boldest things I ever did. I had always gone with older men. I had also achieved some kind of stability in Hollywood, and Desi with his beautiful girls and good times seemed headed in another direction.
- Yet I sensed in Desi a great need. Beneath the dazzling charm was a homeless boy who had no one to care for him, worry about him, love him. And I wanted him and only him as the father of my children.
- It's so hard to believe he is gone. I'm the only one left now. I remember the very last time I spoke with him. It was November 30th, our anniversary and he was in Del Mar with Lucie. He was very weak. Lucie held the phone up to his ear, and we said I love you over and over again to each other. On December 2nd, 1986 I was in the car coming home from taping an episode of Password when I heard Desi died. I could not stop crying. I felt lost, and like my own life had come to some kind of end. Lucie arranged the funeral and Danny Thomas gave the eulogy. It was funny and touching, but so very hard for me to sit through. With Desi's passing I lost my youth, my great success and the only man I ever wanted to be father of my children. Besides Dede, Fred & Cleo, he was the one person who had been in my life the longest and made the greatest impact. I didn't want to even consider what my life would've been without him.
- I hate failure. And that divorce was the number one failure in my eyes. It was the worst period of my life. Neither Desi nor I have been the same since physically or mentally.
- If you don't believe he's a great producer, I got two little Arnaz's at home to prove it.
- I knew there was nobody in the world for me but Desi. We may have our ups and downs just as many people have. I would rather quarrel and make up with him more than anyone else in the world.
- [on Desi Arnaz] Life with Desi is crazy and exciting, but our love is deep and changeless.
- I'm not sure that I want to be without some lack of confidence. If you are too sure of yourself, you don't grow. You may feel confident in some things, but other fields come up as a challenge. And if you don't anticipate trouble, you will be in trouble.
- [on Desi Arnaz] He did make me happy, and I really want people to know that.
- The best time of my marriage was when I was pregnant. That was the kind of marriage that I've always hoped for.
- After the short ceremony, we ate our wedding breakfast in front of a bright fire in the club's lounge. Outside a fresh mantel of snow hung on the pine trees. After all the indecision we'd been through, Desi and I were dazed with happiness. We kissed each other and the marriage certificate again and again. It still has my lipstick marks on it. I'm going to keep this forever and ever. I told Desi. Clutching it to my black wool covered bosom. This marriage had to work. I would do anything, sacrifice anything to make Desi happy.
- We had it all, Desi and I we had it all.
- Desi was singing. His dark eyes were shining, his face radiant, but his hands I noticed were shaking. In Greenwhich, we spent a harried two hours seeing a judge about waving the five day wedding period and getting the necessary health examination. Desi had planned to marry me at the office of Justice of the Peace John J. O'Brien. He had forgotten only one thing, a wedding ring. Desi's business manager ran into Woolworth's and bought me a brass one. Although, Desi later gave me a platinum ring, that little discolored brass ring rest among the diamonds and emeralds in my jewel case for years.
- There would be no Lucy without Desi.
- I had never met a Latin before. In fact, up to this time, I hadn't had much fun. I'd gone out with lots of guys and it had been in the papers, that I was engaged to this one and that one, but now I think back on it, they all seem pretty ordinary. But this I can say for myself and this is the truth. I never wanted to marry anybody until I met Desi.
- People always expect me to be funny. I was never funny; the writers were funny. Do you know who was really funny? Judy Garland. Judy Garland was naturally funny...the funniest lady in Hollywood. She made me look like a mortician.
- I have no desire to play Shakespeare or Chekhov or anything that serious.
- I'm grateful for what motion pictures did for me even though, except for one or two pictures, I've never done any I liked.
