Happy Birthday, Mae West. Mae is one of my favorite actresses of all time and an endless source of inspiration for me. I'm sharing a few of my favorite quotes from her book "Goodness had nothing to do with it." in honor of Mae's birthday. I tried to buy a hard copy but got outbidded. I was able to find a PDF version of the book. Thank the internet Goddess for that.
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"Personality is what you as an individual radiate. It's a com-
bination of your thoughts and the way you express them. A
person with a great personality never has to act, he just does what he feels. All the training you may get will simply teach you how to express what you feel. It's love, too-love and respect for yourself first, then logically for others."
"The men who had so far loved me were strong and important citizens who had been attracted to me because they had become aware I was not like the other women they knew. They soon discovered I would not conform to the old-fashioned limits they had set on a woman's freedom of action. Or the myth of a woman's need of male wisdom and protection. This baffled them. Often made them angry, but oddly enough, once they knew they could not change my philosophy or dominate me, none of them left me; my problem was actually how to get rid of them."
"I began to write in pencil, on assorted scraps of paper, old envelopes, anything with a blank surface. I only knew two rules of playwriting: write about what you know, and make it entertaining. So that's why I wrote it the way I did, on a subject I was interested in sex."
"I have already explained that I freely chose the kind of life I led because I was convinced that a woman has as much right as a man to live the way she does if she does no actual harm to society. I saw no indecency or perversion in the normal private habits of men and women."
" I enjoyed my success with no false humility, and no coy hiding of my ego under a basket. I had worked very hard since a teen-ager. I was still young enough to think it would always be like this, and show-wise, and aware that it would be hard to follow.And that the public and my admirers would demand more and better things. "
“No, you needn't be beautiful; you just make the men think you are beautiful, and that's not hard. In the first place, you have to know all about yourself; your good points, and your not-so-good ones."
"I get my man because I'm in love with myself. I'm crazy about myself. I'm more interested in myself and my own ambitions than I am in anyone else. That sets a high value on me, see? If I had to give advice to young girls on how to get their men, that'd be the first thing I'd tell 'em: “Be crazy about yourselves.” That’s one way.
"Here are the things I never can resist: tall, dark handsome men, diamonds, writing stories in bed, reading, calling policemen by their christian names, and food, more food!"
I hope you enjoyed all these great quotes from Mae herself. Thank you Mae for everything and know you will never be forgotten. 🩷
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