Judy Holliday Quotes

Lovers have a right to betray you... friends don't.

Never do nothing you wouldnt want printed on the front page of The New York Times.

If you can handle a nightclub audience successfully, you can handle anything

We were wavering around like a ship without a sail.

I'm a born and bred New Yorker. I belong here. Everytime I leave it's like losing a leg.

You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over again and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment.

Nobody can give a good performance unless the authors and composers have written a good part, a fact which is often overlooked.

I've always loved words. I ate up all the books I could get my hands on, and when I couldn't get books, I read candy wrappers and labels on cereal and toothpaste boxes.

Of course I work hard. Why shouldn't I? Who am I to think I should get things the easy way?

Acting is a very limited form of expression and those who take it seriously are very limited people. I take it seriously.

I hated the whole idea of being an actress. I used to throw up before every performance and cry afterward.

I get very nervous whenever I think about it. I've never done a serious play, and I have such awe of the woman - she's really my only idol. It's going to be a big stretch - certain people come out on stage and your face muscles automatically tense and you get ready to smile.

I was bargaining for time away from Hollywood, and Columbia was bargaining for money. I got what I wanted and they got what they wanted. They knew I was so anxious to do Born Yesterday that I'd have done it for a dollar. They gave me the next best thing.

I am not a member of any organization listed by the Attorney General as subversive. In any instance where I lent my name in the past, it was certainly without knowledge that such an organization was subversive. I have always been essentially and foremost an American.

People have a hard time making me dress up to look like a classy gal.

I'm trying to eliminate every vestige of my own personality, style, approach and get into somebody else's skin. Sometimes I feel I've accomplished it. But when I don't, I'm nobody at all, having left myself at home

In repose, my face looks as though I had gone through a terrible deal in the last five minutes. I have to disguise the expression and get a glassy-eyed look. That's something I learned from my dog.

I want a part where I can use my own hair, my own voice, and maybe even be literate.

I thought I was learning about show business. The more painful it was, the more important I thought the experience must be. Hating it, I convinced myself it must be invaluable.

I suppose that if I could have quit, I would have, because in those days I never wanted to be an actress, the acting was something to do while I waited for a chance to study writing and directing. But I guess I was just meant to be an actress. Because, here I am.

It's tough when take 1 is technically okay and take 2 has better acting. Out here (Hollywood) they print the first one. That's the one where we all hit the mark on the floor and who cares about the acting.

We gained a great deal of prestige, but not much money. We liked to work so much we couldn't hide it and the club owners paid us accordingly.

I am not an 'instant' actor... to really do anything, I've got to try it five or six or a dozen times.