American actress (1879-1959)
We were taught firmly as children that whenever any member of the family appeared on the stage we were never to applaud. Never! It just wasn't done, either when they came on the stage or at the end of the performance. To do so would have been to break one of the firmest family rules of etiquette.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Memories
The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
attributed, Leaves from a Spiritual Notebook
There is much written today about Command Performances. Well, my mother made three--all in my grandmother's house in Philadelphia, and their names were Lionel, Ethel and John.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Memories
You grow up the day you have your first real laugh -- at yourself.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
The Tell Tale, 1940
To her the theater was never "show business." My grandmother would rise up out of her grave if she heard me use that word. She'd say "show--do you mean a circus?" and she would say it as if she were the Red Queen saying, "Off with her head!"
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Memories
One may write about the child one was with the same freedom that a novelist creates a character. There is no fear of egotism, for the portrait is one of faint colors, and the incidents that crowd in on any small life are incidents of childhood rather than of a particular child.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Memories
For an actress to be a success she must have the face of Venus, the brains of Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
attributed, The Theatre in the Fifties
The best time to make friends is before you need them.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Look Magazine, 1967
Love's not for the poor, son. No time for it.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
None But the Lonely Heart
The hardest thing is where to begin--or, perhaps, why?
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Memories
So many things were considered impertinence in our family. I was made aware of this at a very early age. Nothing was ever said ... you simply knew.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Memories
Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
attributed, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
The place is unreal. The people are unreal. The flowers are unreal--they don't smell. The fruit is unreal. Even the streets and buildings are unreal. I always expected to hear a carpenter shout "Strike" and the whole place come down like a stage set. That's what Hollywood is--a set, a glaring, gaudy, nightmarish set erected in the desert.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
Milwaukee Journal, March 15, 1942