[on her acclaimed novel "So Big"] The title had been only a tentative working one. While the title exactly expressed the book's theme, it seemed in itself to be pretty stomach-turning and I didn't for a moment mean to keep it.

[from her autobiography "A Peculiar Treasure", describing her reaction to "Ol' Man River" from "Show Boat", based on her best-selling novel] The music mounted, mounted, and I give you my word my hair stood on end, the tears came to my eyes, I breathed like a heroine in a melodrama . . . This was great music. This was music that would outlast your day and my day.

[replying to Noël Coward, who once encountered her when she was wearing a tailored suit and said, "You look almost like a man"] So do you.

Roast beef, medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy.

Living in the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causes you to bump into people not going your way.

It's terrible to realize you don't learn how to live until you're ready to die and, then it's too late.