30 quotes
The Cost of Ambition for Women
Margo Channing
Funny business, a woman's career. The things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman.
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A Polite Introduction in Conversation
Margo Channing
Enchanté to you, too!
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Guilt and Innocence in a Competitive World
Margo Channing
In this rat race, everybody's guilty till they're proved innocent!
[responding to Karen's disbelief]
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The Significance of the Sarah Siddons Award
Addison DeWitt
The Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement is perhaps unknown to you. It has been spared the sensational and commercial publicity that attends such questionable honors as the ] - and those awards presented annually by that film society. This is the dining hall of the Sarah Siddons Society. The occasion is its annual banquet and presentation of the highest honor our theater knows - the Sarah Siddons Award for Distinguished Achievement...The minor awards, as you can see, have already been presented. Minor awards are for such as the writer and director since their function is merely to construct a tower so that the world can applaud a light which flashes on top of it. And no brighter light has ever dazzled the eye than Eve Harrington. Eve. But more of Eve later, all about Eve, in fact.
[[w:Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer Prize; playwright Lloyd Richards and director Bill Sampson are briefly viewed]
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Eve Harrington Reflects on Her Journey
Eve Harrington
And there were theaters in San Francisco. And then one night, Margo Channing came to play in Remembrance and I went to see it. Well, here I am.
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The Limitations of Perception and Identity
Eve Harrington
When you're a secretary in a brewery, it's pretty hard to make-believe you're anything else. Everything is beer.
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The Role of a Theater Critic
Addison DeWitt
To those of you who do not read, attend the theater, listen to unsponsored radio programs or know anything of the world in which you live - it is perhaps necessary to introduce myself. My name is Addison De Witt. My native habitat is the theater. In it, I toil not, neither do I spin. I am a critic and commentator. I am essential to the theater.
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Protective Feelings in a Harsh Environment
Margo Channing
Suddenly, I've developed a big protective feeling for her. A lamb loose in our big stone jungle.
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Boundaries Between Home and Performance
Margo Channing
This is my house, not a theater. In my house, you're a guest, not a director.
[to Bill]
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Critique of Autograph Seekers in Showbiz
Margo Channing
Autograph fiends, they're not people. Those are little beasts that run around in packs like coyotes...They're nobody's fans. They're juvenile delinquents, they're mental defectives, they're nobody's audience. They never see a play or a movie even. They're never indoors long enough.
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Blurring Lines Between Reality and Performance
Eve Harrington
But somehow, acting and make believe began to fill up my life more and more. It got so I couldn't tell the real from the unreal. Except that the unreal seemed more real to me.
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Admiration for Miss Channing's Artistic Choices
Eve Harrington
I've seen every performance...I'd like anything Miss Channing played in...I think that part of Miss Channing's greatness lies in her ability to pick the best plays.
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Self-Discovery and Public Perception in Margo Channing
Margo Channing
So many people know me. I wish I did. I wish someone would tell me about me.
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Memorable Night and Lasting Gratitude
Eve Harrington
I'll never forget this night as long as I live, and I'll never forget you for making it possible.
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The Complexity of Human Relationships
Addison DeWitt
* ] for ].]
[At the time of the film's making, the Sarah Siddons Awards were fictitious, but the screenplay's reference inspired their [[w:Sarah Siddons Award|creation in 1952; [w:Theater in Chicago|theatrical productions in Chicago]
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The Enduring Legacy of Margo Channing
Addison DeWitt
Margo Channing is a Star of the Theater. She made her first stage appearance, at the age of four, in Midsummer Night's Dream. She played a fairy and entered - quite unexpectedly - stark naked. She has been a Star ever since. Margo is a great Star. A true star. She never was or will be anything less or anything else.
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The Embrace of Applause and Love
Eve Harrington
If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights and wrapping you up.
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Margo Channing's Disdain for Aging Men
Margo Channing
Bill's thirty-two. He looks thirty-two. He looked it five years ago, he'll look it twenty years from now. I hate men.
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Bumpy Night Ahead
Margo Channing
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.
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Eve's Ambitions for Love and Success
Eve Harrington
Lloyd Richards. He's going to leave Karen. We're going to be married...Lloyd loves me, I love him...I'm in love with Lloyd...Oh Addison, won't it be just perfect? Lloyd and I - there's no telling how far we can go. He'll write great plays for me, I'll make them great.
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The Rise of Eve in the Theater
Addison DeWitt
We know her humility, her devotion, her loyalty to her art, her love, her deep and abiding love for us, for what we are and what we do, the theater. She has had one wish, one prayer, one dream - to belong to us. Tonight, her dream has come true. And henceforth, we shall dream the same of her. Eve. Eve the Golden Girl, the Cover Girl, the Girl Next Door, the Girl on the Moon. Time has been good to Eve. Life goes where she goes. She's the profiled, covered, revealed, reported. What she eats and what she wears and whom she knows and where she was, and when and where she's going. Eve. You all know all about Eve. What can there be to know that you don't know?
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Uninvited Guest at the Party
Margo Channing
I distinctly remember, Addison, crossing you off my guest list. What are you doing here?
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The Complexity of Margo Channing's Character
Margo Channing
*Note: ranked #9 in the ] in American cinema.
[[w:AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes|American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations]
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Margo Channing's Perspective on Awards and Heart
Margo Channing
Nice speech, Eve. But I wouldn't worry too much about your heart. You can always put that award where your heart ought to be.
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Theater Connections Through Marriage and Education
Addison DeWitt
She is the wife of a playwright, therefore of the theater by marriage. Nothing in her background or breeding should have brought her any closer to the stage than Row E, Center. However, during her senior year at Radcliffe, Lloyd Richards lectured on the drama. The following year, Karen became Mrs. Lloyd Richards.
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The Nature of Compassion in Humanity
Margo Channing
Everybody has a heart - except some people.
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Margo Channing's Vengeance Against Critics
Margo Channing
The little witch must have sent out Indian runners, snatching critics out of bars and steam rooms and museums, or wherever they holed up. Well, she won't get away with it, nor will Addison De Witt and his poison pen. If Equity or my lawyer can't or won't do anything about it, I shall personally stuff that pathetic little lost lamb down Mr. De Witt's ugly throat.
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Aging and Vulnerability in Margo Channing
Margo Channing
Lloyd, I am not twenty-ish. I am not thirty-ish. Three months ago, I was forty years old. Forty. Four oh - That slipped out. I hadn't quite made up my mind to admit it. Now I suddenly feel as if I've taken all my clothes off.
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Types of Theatrical Producers Explained
Addison DeWitt
There are in general two types of theatrical producers. One has a great many wealthier friends who will risk a tax deductible loss. This type is interested in art. The other is one to whom each production means potential ruin or fortune. This type is out to make a buck.
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Embracing Change and New Beginnings
Margo Channing
Never have I been so happy...I'm forgiving tonight, even Eve, I forgive Eve...Do you know what I'm going to be?...A married lady...No more make believe off stage or on. Remember, Lloyd? I mean it now...I don't want to play Cora...It isn't the part. It's a great part in a fine play. But not for me anymore. Not for a four-square, upright, downright, forthright married lady...It means I finally got a life to live. I don't have to play parts I'm too old for, just because I've got nothing to do with my nights.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.