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 Jean Arthur Quotation"It's a strenuous job every day of your life to live up to the way you look on the screen." "I guess I became an actress because I didn't want to be myself." "I am not an adult, that's my explanation of myself. Except when I am working on a set, I have all the inhibitions and shyness of the bashful, backward child...Unless I have something very much in common with a person, I am lost. I am swallowed up in my own silence." "The fact that I did not marry George Bernard Shaw is the only real disappointment I've had." [On Hollywood] "I hated the place - not the work, but the lack of privacy, those terrible prying fan magazine writers and all the surrounding exploitation." "If people don't like your work, all the still pictures in the world can't help you and nothing written about you, even oceans of it, will make you popular." (on doing interviews) "Quite frankly, I'd rather have my throat slit." "I bumped into every kind of dissappointment, and was frustrated at every turn. Roles promised me were given to other players, pictures that offered me a chance were shelved, no one was particularly interested in me, and I had not developed a strength of personality to make anyone believe I had special talents. I wanted so desperately to succeed that I drove myself relentlessly, taking no time off for pleasures, or for friendships - yet aiming at the stars, I was still floundering." "First I played ingenues and Western heroines; then I played Western heroines and ingenues. That diet of roles became as monotonous as a diet of spinach. The studio woudn't trust me with any other kind of role, because I had no experience in any other kind. And I didn't see how I was ever going to acquire any other experience if I couldn't get any other kind of role. It was a vicious circle." "It's hardly fair for women to do the same things at the same hours every day of their lives, while men have new experiences, meet new people every day. I felt that way as a little girl, with two older brothers around the house. It seemed to me that they led adventurous lives, compared with mine. I felt cheated and frustrated. I became a tomboy in self-defense. I decided that I was going to do things that were exciting, or at least interseting." [speaking in in the 1930s] "I've never had a single close intimate girl friend in all my life. I never had a chum to whom I could confide my secrets. I suppose that accounts for the fact that now it is so painfully difficult for me to open my heart and confide in people who are, so often, almost strangers. You have to learn so very young to open your heart." [on her early acting days] "My very 'naturalness' was my undoing. I had to learn that to appear natural on the screen requires a vast amount of training, that is the test of an actors art. It would be more srectacular could I say that out of the hurt and humiliation of that failure was born a determination to success, to prove I had the makings of an actress. But it wouldn't be true. That urge came later." Movie Title: Arizona (1940) as Phoebe Titus: Peter Muncie : A wagon train come in headin' for California and I'm joinin' up with it. Phoebe Titus : When? Peter Muncie : Sundown. Phoebe Titus : Well, sundown is a good time to leave. Indians don't hanker much for night fightin'. Phoebe Titus : Mr. Oury, am I hearing you right? Are you talking about giving Arizona back to the Indians? Grant Oury : That's one way of saying it, Phoebe. Judge Bogardus : Like Oury says, it's better to leave what we built here than get our bones picked clean by buzzards. Phoebe Titus : What did you ever build? Phoebe Titus : Are you asking me to marry you? Peter Muncie : Around about. Is there still something you don't like about me? Phoebe Titus : No, it's not that. If there wasn't something I didn't like about a man, I couldn't stand the sight of him. Phoebe Titus : Now sometime before morning, I'm going to let off both barrels of this shotgun right at you. I don't know just what time it'll happen...whenever my finger gets to itching too much. But you can depend on it. You're gonna have a double hole blown clear through you. Maybe ten minutes, maybe two hours. All you have to do is sit comfortable until I think it's the right time. Movie Title: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) as Babe Bennett / Louise "Babe" Bennett: John Cedar : Your Honor, what she is saying has no bearing on the case. I object! Judge May : Let her speak! Babe Bennett : I know why he won't defend himself! That has a bearing on the case, hasn't it? He's been hurt, he's been hurt by everybody he met since he came here, principally by me. He's been the victim of every conniving crook in town. The newspapers pounced on him, made him a target for their feeble humor. I was smarter than the rest of them: I got closer to him, so I could laugh louder. Why shouldn't he keep quiet -- every time he said anything it was twisted around to sound imbecilic! He can thank me for it. I handed the gang a grand laugh. It's a fitting climax to my sense of humor. John Cedar : Why, Your Honor, this is preposterous. Babe Bennett : Certainly I wrote those articles. I was going to get a raise, a month's vacation. But I stopped writing them when I found out what he was all about, when I realized how real he was. He could never fit in with our distorted viewpoint, because he's honest, and sincere, and good. If that man's crazy, Your Honor, the rest of us belong in straitjackets! John Cedar : Your Honor, this is absurd. The woman's obviously in love with him. Babe Bennett : What's that got to do with it? John Cedar : Well, you are in love with him, aren't you? Babe Bennett : What's that got to do with it?! John Cedar : You ARE, aren't you? Babe Bennett : Yes! Louise "Babe" Bennett : That guy is either the dumbest, stupidest, most imbecilic idiot in the world, or else he's the grandest thing alive. I can't make him out. Movie Title: The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936) as Paula Bradford: Dr. Lawrence Bradford : Don't tell him what happened. Paula Bradford : I don't know what happened! Dr. Lawrence Bradford : Neither do I. Dr. Lawrence Bradford : What *is* a cocktail dress? Paula Bradford : Something to spill cocktails on. Paula Bradford : Oh well, you know, "Great minds..." Dr. Lawrence Bradford : No, I don't know any great minds. [Brad and Paula in the morgue] Paula Bradford : My goodness, that looks just like a refrigerator. What is it? Dr. Lawrence Bradford : A refrigerator. Dr. Lawrence Bradford : Murphy, you're manna from heaven. Paula Bradford : You mean that manna's here again? Movie Title: Only Angels Have Wings (1939) as Bonnie Lee: Bonnie Lee : I know, I know, you'd never ask any woman to do anything. Movie Title: A Foreign Affair (1948) as Phoebe Frost: Captain John Pringle : How is good old Iowa? Phoebe Frost : Sixty-two percent Republican, thank you. Phoebe Frost : We'll go there right now! Captain John Pringle : Where? Phoebe Frost : To the files! Captain John Pringle : In the middle of the night? Shouldn't we get permission? Phoebe Frost : Did we get permission to land in Normandie? Let's go! Movie Title: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) as Clarissa Saunders: [The filibuster begins] President of Senate : The Chair recognizes... Senator Smith! Jefferson Smith : Thank you, sir. Clarissa Saunders : Diz, here we go. Jefferson Smith : Well, I guess the gentlemen are in a pretty tall hurry to get me out of here. The way the evidence has piled up against me, I can't say I blame them much. And I'm quite willing to go, sir, when they vote it that way - but before that happens I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before, and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not going to leave this body until I do get them said. Senator Joseph Paine : Mr. President, will the Senator yield? President of Senate : Will the Senator yield? Jefferson Smith : No, sir, I'm afraid not, no sir. I yielded the floor once before, if you can remember, and I was practically never heard of again. No sir. And we might as well all get together on this yielding business right off the bat, now. [laughter from the gallery] Jefferson Smith : Now, I had some pretty good coaching last night, and I find that if I yield only for a question or a point of order or a personal privilege, that I can hold this floor almost until doomsday. In other words, I've got a piece to speak, and blow hot or cold, I'm going to speak it. Senator Joseph Paine : Will the Senator yield? President of Senate : Will Senator Smith yield? Jefferson Smith : Yield how, sir? Senator Joseph Paine : Will he yield for a question? Jefferson Smith : For a question, alright. Diz Moore : [dictating into phone] In protest, the whole Senate body rose and walked out. Clarissa Saunders : No! No, not that straight stuff. Now listen, kick it up, get on his side, fight for him! Understand? Diz Moore : You love this monkey - don't you? Clarissa Saunders : What do you think? Now listen, go to work. Do as I tell you. Diz Moore : [into phone] Throw out that last, take this. This is the most titanic battle of modern times. A David without even a slingshot rises to do battle against the mighty Goliath, the Taylor machine, allegedly crooked inside and out. Yeah, and for my money, you can cut out the "allegedly." |
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