JOAN FONTAINE

One puzzling thing about men -- they allow their sex instinct to drive them to where their intelligence never would take them.

The main problem in marriage is that, for a man, sex is a hunger-like eating. If the man is hungry and can't get to a fancy French restaurant, he'll go to a hot dog stand. For a woman, what's important is love and romance.

[On her troubled relationships with her daughters:] You can acquire enemies. Why give birth to them?

It's better to be on a soap opera to renew your career and following than to be on any other medium.

I've flown in an international balloon race. I've piloted my own plane. I've ridden to the hounds. I've done a lot of exciting things.

It seems there's just no room left for elegance in this paper-plate, blue-jean world. And I, for one, think it's a shame.

If you keep marrying as I do, you learn everybody's hobby.

I hope I'll die on stage at the age at 105, playing Peter Pan.

You know, I've had a helluva life.

I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia (sister Olivia de Havilland) did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!

If you keep marrying as I do, you learn everybody's hobby.

I hope I'll die on stage at the age at 105, playing Peter Pan.

That Oscar can be a jinx... It can... damage irreparably one's relations with family, friends. It's an uneasy head that wears the crown.

It's better to be on a soap opera to renew your career and following than to be on any other medium.

Goodness knows, I tried. But I think it's virtually impossible for the right kind of man to be married to a movie star.

My sister is a very peculiar lady. When we were young, I wasn't allowed to talk to her friends. Now I'm not allowed to talk to her children, nor are they permitted to see me. This is the nature of the lady. Doesn't bother me at all.

Marriage, as an institution, is as dead as the dodo bird.

I've flown in an international balloon race. I've piloted my own plane. I've ridden to the hounds. I've done a lot of exciting things.

The main problem in marriage is that, for a man, sex is a hunger-like eating. If the man is hungry and can't get to a fancy French restaurant, he'll go to a hot dog stand. For a woman, what's important is love and romance.

The theater audience is the ultimate teacher, instructing the actor on the degree to which he has executed both the author's and the director's intent.

I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia (sister Olivia de Havilland) did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!

It seems there's just no room left for elegance in this paper-plate, blue-jean world. And I, for one, think it's a shame.

You know, I've had a helluva life. Not just the acting part. I've flown in an international balloon race. I've piloted my own plane. I've ridden to the hounds. I've done a lot of exciting things.

One puzzling thing about men -- they allow their sex instinct to drive them to where their intelligence never would take them.

[On her troubled relationships with her daughters:] You can acquire enemies. Why give birth to them?

You know, I've had a helluva life.