Sourced

• The only reason they come to see me is that I know that life is great — and they know I know it.
  • As quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (1987) by Robert Andrews, p. 3

• All this "King" stuff is pure bullshit. I eat and sleep and go to the bathroom just like anyone else. I'm just a lucky slob from Ohio who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
  • Quoted in Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2003) by Leslie Halliwell, and John Walker, p. 181, and The Hollywood Book of Scandals: The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of More than 100 American Movie and TV idols (2004) by James Robert Parish, p. 67

• I worked like a son of a bitch to learn a few tricks and I fight like a steer to avoid getting stuck with parts I can't play.
  • On his acting ability, as quoted in The Hollywood Book of Scandals : The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of More than 100 American Movie and TV idols (2004) by James Robert Parish, p. 67

Roles

• Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
  • As Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939). This was voted to be the number one movie line of all time in a poll in 2005 for the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations.

Unsourced

• You can trust that little screwball with your life or your hopes or your weaknesses, and she wouldn't even know how to think about letting you down.
  • On his wife, Carole Lombard and her tolerance of his constant philandering.

• Working with Marilyn Monroe on The Misfits (1961) nearly gave me a heart attack. I have never been happier when a film ended.

• This is the best picture I have made, and it's the only time I've been able to act.
  • On The Misfits (1961)

• Hell, if I'd jumped on all the dames I'm supposed to have jumped on, I'd have had no time to go fishing.

• The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence. He's got to have some inner standards worth fighting for or there won't be any way to bring him into conflict. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it. That's all there is to it.

• It is an extra dividend when you like the girl you've fallen in love with.

• I hate a liar. Maybe because I'm such a good one myself, heh? Anyway, to find someone has told an out-and-out lie puts him on the other side of the fence from me for all time.

• I'm no actor and I never have been. What people see on the screen is me.

• I can't emote worth a damn.
  • On rumors he was dull in bed

• Everything Marilyn does is different from any other woman, strange and exciting, from the way she talks to the way she uses that magnificent torso.

• The guy's good. There's nobody in the business who can touch him, and you're a fool to try. And the bastard knows it, so don't fool for that humble stuff!
  • On Spencer Tracy

• Every picture I make, every experience of my private life, every lesson I learn are the keys to my future. And I have faith in it.

• I am intrigued by glamorous women....A vain woman is continually taking out a compact to repair her makeup. A glamorous woman knows she doesn't need to.

Quotes about Gable

• Clark Gable was the only real he-man I've ever known, of all the actors I've met.
  • John Huston, as quoted in The Hollywood Book of Scandals : The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of More than 100 American Movie and TV idols (2004) by James Robert Parish, p. 66