Quotes

[on failing to receive an Academy Award after her fourth nomination] I guess I'll remain a bridesmaid for the rest of my life.

[when asked if there will be Brotherhood in the 1970s] Unless the country and the people in it go back to some Christian principles, there will be no peace. We must really care for each other. Just being polite is caring for your fellow man, but these times call for a great deal more than that. There is nothing more inspiring or so infectious as a good example. I am a religious person and I think that the hope of the world is in the Prince of Peace whose principles, if they were followed, would bring a great understanding between human beings.

[commenting that the youth of 1970 need more discipline] Materialism has brought about confusion and decadence. The youth of today have their eyes open to what harm has been done by measuring a man by the size of his bank account, and I feel sorry that so few of them know where to turn because they have lost respect for those closest to them.

Permissiveness in society springs from a lack of standards. There must be a rule of behavior, an appreciation of basic values.

[on "Oh, Calcutta", a play in which most of the cast sheds its clothes and appears nude onstage] Nudity begins at home. After all, who wants to see everybody flying around in their birthday suit? It takes all the magic and illusion out of the theatre.

[when asked if prostitution should be legalized] Legalizing prostitution wouldn't make any difference these days anyway. The whole country is loose, so what's the difference. I don't care what everybody else is doing. I just look at whether it's right or wrong.

[on Marlon Brando, after visiting the set of The Chase (1966)] A wild set--with the great Marlon Brando. You couldn't hear him speak. How do they get on? One take a day practically and he gets $1,000,000 a picture. It's beyond me.

[commenting on the "Method" school of acting] The Method school thinks the emotion is the art. It isn't. All emotion isn't sublime. The theater isn't reality. If you want reality, go to the morgue. The theater is human behavior that is effective and interesting.

It's an unavoidable truth. Fear of life closes off more opportunities for us than fear of death ever does.

[on what she prefers to be remembered for]: I've been in movies and played theater from coast to coast, so I was quite well-known before 'Bewitched' and I don't particularly want to be identified as a witch.