These Lillian Gish quotes will motivate you. Lillian Diana Gish was an American pioneering actress of the screen and stage and a director and writer. Her film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called “The First Lady of American Cinema”, and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques.
Gish was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith. This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915). At the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in film infrequently, including well-known roles in the controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955).
Best Lillian Gish Quotes
- “What you get is a living-what you give is a life.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “As long as you are curious, you will never be bored.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “I’ve never been in style, so I can’t go out of style.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived I’m sure I would have played his mother. That’s the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.” ~ Lillian Gish
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“A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “You can get through life with bad manners, but it’s easier with good manners.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “I never approved of talkies. Silent movies were well on their way to developing an entirely new art form. It was not just pantomine, but something wonderfully expressive.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “The older I get, the more I believe in what I can’t explain or understand, even more than the things that are explainable and understandable.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “Never get caught acting.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “It’s a hard world for little things.” ~ Lillian Gish
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“Love is a hard rock between two people and can’t be torn apart” ~ Lillian Gish
- “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t acting, so I can’t imagine what I would do if I stopped now.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “Hollywood has turned into an emotional Detroit.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “I like people to come back and tell me what I did wrong. That’s the kindest thing you can do.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “Fans always write asking why I didn’t smile more in films. I smiled in `Annie Laurie`, but I can’t recall that it helped much.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “It had been drilled into us that when an audience pays to see a performance, it is entitled to the best performance you can give.Nothing in your personal life must interfere, neither fatigue, illness, nor anxiety–not even joy.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “The stage was our school, our home, our life.” ~ Lillian Gish
- “Hollywood – an emotional Detroit.” ~ Lillian Gish
