Radio is truly the theater of the mind. The listener constructs the sets, colors them from his own palette, and sculpts and costumes the characters who perform in them.

I'm glad I am a woman who once danced naked in the Mediterranean Sea at midnight.

My anger made me drink as an escape from reality, a way of forgetting. But you don't know when the medicinal effect ends and the poisoning begins ... This is my sixth year of sobriety. Overcoming alcoholism has been my greatest challenge and my greatest reward.

My name is real, which probably explains why I never became a superstar... how would that look in lights?

So many people have really wanted to die. They seem ashamed to say so. I think it would help if they would say so.

I lose all control after two drinks of anything.

I have no use for people who hunt for what they call sport.

I'd stand in line for Confession with old people and little kids, and as the line moved up, I knew when I got into the box that I would lie! Again!

Joan Crawford is a movie queen. I had never met one before. I know now what I don't want to be.

While I am rehearsing a play, I try to read nothing that might distract my concentration from the work in progress.

The Irish ... are full of the fear of the Lord and the joy of living, and they don't know how to combine the two, but they'll sure have a good time trying.

I think The Exorcist was the hardest work I've ever done.

I can choose to accelerate my disease to an alcoholic death or incurable insanity, or I can choose to live within my thoroughly human condition.

Most people call me Mercy. I like it.

I don't think the Hollywood community is interested in what I can do. That's all right. I've never looked for a job in my life, and I'm not going to start now. I have plenty to keep me busy.

At awards time, The Exorcist was nominated in 11 categories, everybody but the janitor was up for an Oscar. There was no category for what I did.

It is a remarkably beautiful piece of home furnishing, the Oscar. I used to keep it up in front of a mirror so that it looked like two.

Like many alcoholics, I was a staggering woman in a chic apartment, sick and utterly disgusting.

I never wanted a Guardian Angel. I didn't ask for one. One was assigned to me.

Aside from my son, no person has ever shown for me the gentle concern I knew from Governor Adlai Stevenson.