The fuss that actors began making about the difficulty of shifting to sound struck me as perfectly foolish.

Writing the story of your own life is a bit like drilling your own teeth.

I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it.

I think all this talk about age is foolish. Every time I'm one year older, everyone else is too.

Key West for me was a tropical island paradise.

So they were turning, after all - those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her. Norma: You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a whisper) There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up.

Never say never, for if you live long enough, chances are you will not be able to abide by the simplest of such injunctions.