On being nicknamed "The Body": "When I would come on the set the grips used to make with the wolf whistles; and one day guy yelled 'Get a load of that body'. And then the publicity boys went to work. The Hollywood producers don't realize I can sing. They don't realize I can act either. When they want window-dressing for one of their movies they say 'Bring in the body."
On fame: "I have no delusions about movie stardom. I don't think it can whisk me out of realities. The fame itself isn't important to me."
On her boyfriends: "I like my men handsome and rich."
On changing her hair color: "I admit nobody changes color faster than I do. If my mop has been dyed once it's been dyed thirty times. It's getting so people don't recognize me any more."
On men: "Hollywood men have too much ego. They're spoiled. They treat actresses like working girls. Which, heaven knows we are. They expect us to be amusing, don't bother to be fun themselves. Hollywood is a man's town, so they can get away with it."
On love: "When a woman is in love she is really living; when she's isn't, she's only existing. Love is more important to me than success. I'd much rather have the agony of love than have great success and drabness without it."
On her divorce from Louis Bass: "I'm going to be the gayest divorcee this town has ever seen."
With Vic Orsatti (Johnny Auer is in the middle)
On Vic Orsatti being her agent and husband: "I still pay him the regular 10 percent but he uses it to pay the rent. And, if there's any left left over I
get a present."
On her divorce from Vic Orsatti: "I'd hate to lose the best agent in town just because my marriage broke up. I hope Hollywood doesn't make this cheap. Vic and I thought we had the jinx beat. It just didn't work out that way. I still think that Vic is a wonderful person, but it’s a case of two people making each other unhappy. I’m not trying to be Hollywood, but I’m much too fond of Vic to let our marriage develop into a series of quarrels and nagging scenes."
On why she got married so many times: "Husbands are easier to find that good agents."
On her childhood: "I was an only child and somehow I skipped over being a 'little girl'. I grew up entirely surrounded by adults and I felt silly with kids
my own age."
On becoming a good actress: "The first three dramatic coaches I went to in Hollywood, after I was already working pictures, were absolute phonies. Now I'm on the right track. I'm studying diction with Gertrude Fogler, dramatics with Lillian Burns, dancing with Nico Charisse, singing with Arthur Rosenstein, and I'm taking both French and Spanish lessons. I wouldn't be such a fool to rely on looks alone."
On rumors she had a heart attack in 1949: "I haven't got heart trouble. The doctors envy my heart."
On adopting her children: "I wanted desperately to have a child. After several miscarriages which left me ill and depressed, I was able to convince Harry that we should adopt a baby. To my great joy we adopted not one, but two babies in quick succession; Denise and Harrison, who are ten years old and only a few months apart. I wouldn't let my babies out of my sight. I'd run the nurse out of the nursery and sleep there myself, my hand in Dee-dee's, just to feel her close by and hear both my babies breathing as they slept."
On her early film roles: "All I did was take off my clothes. They wouldn't even let me sing in the bathtub."
One of her early films
On her goals: "My ambition is to make six million dollars by the time I'm twenty-nine, so I can retire."
On her career: "I'd like to do the kind of stuff Jean Arthur does. Carole Lombard used to be my favorite and I think I can handle the types of roles she used to get."
On her nightclub act: "I played in Las Vegas and Park Avenue to capacity audiences. Offers came in from London, Paris, and other European capitals, and I flew there to keep the engagements. In Europe I had a ball. I'd sweep on the stage wearing minks, and I'd sweep into nightclubs on the arm of man the
same way."
On the scandals in her life: "I'm going to work to wipe out all this silly publicity and win back the respect I've lost by my foolish actions."
On staying tan: "I work at maintaining my tan. When I was in Las Vegas I swam every day in the hotel pool, and when I climbed out I turned myself over and over as though I were on a spit."
On her frequent illnesses: "This body isn't ready for an autopsy yet."
On her 1957 kidnapping: "I was kidnapped, beaten, and robbed by two men who spirited me away and then tossed me in the desert. I'm frightened...I've been threatened again and it's time the truth came out! I'm in fear for my life and the lives of my children. This kidnapping was authentic. It was motivated by my husband by his own admission and by the two men who kidnapped me."
Talking to an investigator after her kidnapping
