Edith Evans

"I know that if I'd had to go and take an exam for acting, I wouldn't have got anywhere. You don't take exams for acting, you take your courage."

"When a woman behaves like a man, why doesn't she behave like a nice man?"

"If you're an actor, a real actor, you've got to be on the stage. But you mustn't go on the stage unless it's absolutely the only thing you can do."

"Actresses are such very dull people off the stage. We are only delightful and brilliant when we are doing what we are told to do. Off stage we are awful chumps."

"A successful artist of any kind has to work so hard that she is justified in refusing to lay down her sceptre until she is placed on the bier."