A biography for Marlene Dietrichhasn’t been written yet.
“When you're dead, you're dead. That's it.”
“The average man is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman with beautiful legs.”
“I am not a myth.”
“The Germans and I no longer speak the same language.”
“It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”
“Darling, the legs aren't so beautiful, I just know what to do with them.”
“In America, sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it's a fact.”
“A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma.”
“Latins are tenderly enthusiastic. In Brazil they throw flowers at you. In Argentina they throw themselves.”
“They want you to bring out your intestines.”
“I had no desire to be an film actress, to always play somebody else, to be always beautiful with somebody constantly straightening out your every eyelash. It was always a big bother to me.”
“Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.”
“Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is the bullring.”
“Sex. In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact.”
“The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.”
“Most women set out to try to change a man, and when they have changed him they do not like him.”
“Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.”
“I never enjoyed working in a film.”
“Without tenderness, a man is uninteresting.”
“The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.”