Oscar Wilde: 'Do you mind if I smoke?' Sarah Bernhardt: 'I don't care if you burn.'

What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty?

New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody's castle-roof perforated.

Me pray? Never! I'm an atheist.

He who is incapable of feeling strong passions, of being shaken by anger, of living in every sense of the word, will never be a good actor.

For the theatre one needs long arms... an artiste with short arms can never make a fine gesture.

[When asked at age 79 why her Paris apartment was located up many flights of stairs at the top of the building:] It's the only way I can still make the hearts of men beat faster.