"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents."
— Marilyn Monroe

"Any actress who appears in public without being well-groomed is digging her own grave."
— Joan Crawford

"You can try to break us, and make us fall apart, but the fire's in our hearts!"
— Jonas Brothers

"Remember the great film with Bette Davis, All About Eve? There's a scene after the scheming Eve steals Margo's role through trickery & then gets this magnificent review. Margo of course is effing & blinding all over the place. And crying. Her director rushes into her house, puts his arms around her & says, "I ran all the way". That's what I want."
— Martha Grimes (Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery)

"The secret to kicking ass in dumbshit Hollywood... Every time you meet someone, make a fucking impression. Make them think you're the hottest shit in the world. Make them think they're gonna lose their job if they don't give you one. Look 'em in the eye, and never look away. Be confident and calm, be fucking bold.
That sounds more like the secret to kicking ass in life.
It is, but I was gonna wait and tell you that some other time. "
— James Frey (My Friend Leonard)

"Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him."
— Orson Welles

"In Hollywood, no one knows anything."
— William Goldman

"Life in the movie business is like the beginning of a new love affair: it's full of surprises, and you're constantly getting fucked."
— David Mamet (Speed-the-plow: A play)

"In hollywood if you don't have a shrink, people think you're crazy."
— Johnny Carson

"If you think Hollywood is depressing and corrupt, politics is really depressing and corrupt -- and fueled even more than Hollywood by money -- if that's possible."
— Ben Affleck

"In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally."
— W. Somerset Maugham

"He has the memory of a convict, the balls of a fireman, and the eyesight of a housebreaker. When there's a crime to fight, Landsman tears around Sitka like a man with his pant leg caught on a rocket. It's like there's a film score playing behind him, heavy on the castanets."
— Michael Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen's Union)