Lauren Bacall: 14 of her best quotes

In Lauren Bacall, we lose one of Hollywood’s wisest crackers on screen and off – here are some of her sharpest lines

• Lauren Bacall dies at 89: her life in pictures

‘That was the beginning of The Look’: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. Photograph: Uncredited/AP

Stardom isn’t a profession, it’s an accident.

If there was one thing I had never been, it was mysterious, and if there was one thing I had never done, it was not talk.

Looking at yourself in a mirror isn’t exactly a study of life.

I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look.

I am not a has-been. I am a will be.

[Katharine Hepburn] was much stronger, much more opinionated than I am or ever was, and it was considered attractive on her. But not on me. I don’t know. Maybe her Bryn Mawr accent was more appealing than mine.

In Hollywood, an equitable divorce settlement means each party getting 50% of publicity.

I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.

You can’t always be a leading lady.

I fought for that part [in Designing Woman]; I wanted it badly. I took a lower salary, I did everything. Grace Kelly said, ‘I’ll never forgive you for playing that part. It was written for me.’ She got the prince, I got the part.

What is the point of working all your life and then stopping?

I don’t live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are that you can’t ignore it. But I don’t look at scrapbooks. I could show you some, but I’d have to climb ladders, and I can’t climb.

Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.

I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing.