Judy Holliday Quotes


"I was bargaining for time away from Hollywood, and Columbia was bargaining for money. I got what I wanted and they got what they wanted. They knew I was so anxious to do Born Yesterday that I'd have done it for a dollar. They gave me the next best thing."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Time, Money, Hollywood, Yesterday)

"I want a part where I can use my own hair, my own voice, and maybe even be literate."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Hair, Voice, Want)

"I thought I was learning about show business. The more painful it was, the more important I thought the experience must be. Hating it, I convinced myself it must be invaluable."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Experience, Business, Thought, Learning)

"I think Billie is the kind of girl who would let her hips swing loose."
- Judy Holliday
"I suppose that if I could have quit, I would have, because in those days I never wanted to be an actress, the acting was something to do while I waited for a chance to study writing and directing. But I guess I was just meant to be an actress. Because, here I am."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Acting, Chance, Study, Writing)

"I am not a member of any organization listed by the Attorney General as subversive. In any instance where I lent my name in the past, it was certainly without knowledge that such an organization was subversive. I have always been essentially and foremost an American."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Knowledge, American, Lent, Name, Past)

"I get very nervous whenever I think about it. I've never done a serious play, and I have such awe of the woman - she's really my only idol. It's going to be a big stretch - certain people come out on stage and your face muscles automatically tense and you get ready to smile."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: People, Play, Smile, Woman)

"We were wavering around like a ship without a sail."
- Judy Holliday
"I could talk about him all day. He's one of the most wonderful things that ever happened to me."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Day, Talk)

"I hated the whole idea of being an actress. I used to throw up before every performance and cry afterward."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Idea, Performance, Being)

"We gained a great deal of prestige, but not much money. We liked to work so much we couldn't hide it and the club owners paid us accordingly."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Work, Money)

"I'm a born and bred New Yorker. I belong here. Everytime I leave it's like losing a leg."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Losing)

"It meant as much to me as winning the Oscar."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Winning)

"It's tough when take 1 is technically okay and take 2 has better acting. Out here (Hollywood) they print the first one. That's the one where we all hit the mark on the floor and who cares about the acting."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Acting, First)

"Lovers have a right to betray you... friends don't."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Friends, Lovers, Right)

"Nobody can give a good performance unless the authors and composers have written a good part, a fact which is often overlooked."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Performance, Composers, Fact)

"Now with all this movie business, everybody's coming around wanting to know everything that's happened since I was four. It's like going to an analyst."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Business, Now)

"Of course I work hard. Why shouldn't I? Who am I to think I should get things the easy way?"
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Work)

"People have a hard time making me dress up to look like a classy gal."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Time, People, Dress)

"You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over again and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Attention, Dumb, Play)

"They weren't interested in entertainment. They were tough. I learned one trick, which was to be quieter than they were until they had to look at you. It took a lot of agressiveness."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Entertainment)

"He didn't maintain my illusion of myself, he gave me an illusion of myself. Before I met him, I never thought of myself as an actress. Boy, he sidetracked me in a great way!"
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Thought, Illusion)

"When they thought of me, they always remembered the vacuous Billie Dawn. It was as simple as that."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Thought, Dawn)

"I'm trying to eliminate every vestige of my own personality, style, approach and get into somebody else's skin. Sometimes I feel I've accomplished it. But when I don't, I'm nobody at all, having left myself at home."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Home, Personality, Skin, Style, Trying)

"I've always loved words. I ate up all the books I could get my hands on, and when I couldn't get books, I read candy wrappers and labels on cereal and toothpaste boxes."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: Books, Words)

"If you can handle a nightclub audience successfully, you can handle anything."
- Judy Holliday
"Acting is a very limited form of expression and those who take it seriously are very limited people. I take it seriously."
- Judy Holliday
(Related: People, Acting, Expression)

"The only actress they didn't test was Garbo. Must have been her accent."
- Judy Holliday