Ava Gardner Quotes

“I either write the books or sell the jewels , and I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels.”
― Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“He always called me Daughter. It was to distinguish me from his sister Ava. I loved being called Daughter. It sounded so possessive, and to be possessed when you are a child is just a wonderful feeling. It makes you feel safe. It makes you feel loved.”
― Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“The size of Frank Sinatra's penis had been on my mind for weeks. I don't know why it was bothering me so much, but it was.”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“When he fell down the stairs, he told people he'd had a stroke. He was just pissed out of his skull. I love Dirk, he is such a drama queen.”
― Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“But I must say, it's a lonely business fucking someone you no longer love. Especially a husband.
Tough, funny, vulgar, cynical, it was a classic Ava Gardner line.
It rolled off the tongue. I didn't want to lose it.
The problem was I couldn't reconcile it with something she had told me earlier--that she was "even more in love with all three of my husbands the day I left them than the day we married."
-author Peter Evans”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“Why do you think that?” she asked sharply. It was the kind of question Peter Viertel had warned me about. When they were making The Sun Also Rises, in which she played Hemingway’s Lady Brett Ashley, he told me: “I’d show her the script, she’d ask something innocuous like, ‘Would Lady Brett say that line?’ or ‘Does Lady Brett need to say anything here? Jake [Barnes, the narrator and hero of The Sun Also Rises, played by Tyrone Power] will understand from her look what she’s thinking. There will be no need to spell it out.’ “And suddenly she’s embroiled you in an almighty argument about the script, or about the book you’re trying to write for her. You can’t reason with her because she never approaches anything intellectually. She is the most intuitive woman I know.”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“I think the most vulgar thing about Hollywood is the way it believes its own gossip.”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“bothered. “I’m okay taking notes,” I said”
― Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“She was infuriating, bawdy, frank, and unreasonable. She was also kind, affectionate, trusting, and often touching.
And I adored her.
--said by the author Peter Evans”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“think that was interesting? “I almost died”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“But I must say, it’s a lonely business fucking someone you no longer love.”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“What is it they say? The fucking you get for the fucking you got?”
― Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“My accent was as Tarheel as it gets. That's incomprehensible to anyone who lives more than two whoops and a holler outside of the state of North Carolina.”
― Ava Gardner Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“... keep telling her how beautiful she looks. Keep on saying that. How beautiful she looks. Lay it on thick. She won't believe you, she's too smart to fall for blarney, but it's what she wants to hear. It's the tribute you must always pay to great beauties when they grow old. Remember it's always the cameraman who grows old, never the star.”
― Ava Gardner Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“... I said something about the way some of the longshoremen smelled. They smelled just godawful, especially when they'd just come back from their night shifts. Mama said: That's what money smells like, honey. You still wanna be rich?”
― Ava Gardner Peter Evans, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations