Elizabeth Taylor Quotes

                                                                         

                                                                         

                                                                     

                                                                          

                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                         

She could be any woman's role model, and not simply for her amazing beauty.

                                                                     

From her film career to her role in Entebbe, her love of jewellery, and her work for AIDS,,, she was quite incredible!

                                                                   

1: "Big girls need big diamonds"

2: "I've always admitted that I'm ruled by my passions."

3: "I fell off my pink cloud with a thud."

4: "I am a very committed wife. And I should be committed too - for being married so many times."

5: "I don't think President Bush is doing anything at all about Aids. In fact, I'm not sure he even knows how to spell Aids."
6: "I really don't remember much about Cleopatra. There were a lot of other things going on."
7: "I suppose when they reach a certain age some men are afraid to grow up. It seems the older the men get, the younger their new wives get."
8: "I’m a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive."
9: "I've been through it all, baby, I'm mother courage."
10: "Everything makes me nervous - except making films."
11: "I've only slept with men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?"
12: "If someone's dumb enough to offer me a million dollars to make a picture, I'm certainly not dumb enough to turn it down."
13: "Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses."
14: "Success is a great deodorant."
15: "You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal."
16: "It's not the having, it's the getting."
17: "Marriage is a great institution."
18: "People who know me well, call me Elizabeth. I dislike Liz."
19: "So much to do, so little done, such things to be."
20: "I don't like my voice. I don't like the way I look. I don't like the way I move. I don't like the way I act. I mean, period. So, you know, I don't like myself."

                                                                  

                                                                         

                                                                         

       
                                                            

Received via email, and use the search engine top left for more on Dame Elizabeth Taylor
including these: 
Larger pictures with thanks to Elizabeth Taylor's Facebook Page. 

And some more:

1. Before I made films, I had a lemonade stand in Southern California.

2. When José Eber is out of town, I love to cut my hair and anyone else's.

3. I'm mad for Law & Order and have seen every single episode. My children and Mariska Hargitay, a dazzling actress, played together as kids.

4. I converted to Judaism in 1959.

5. My Jewish name is Elisheba Rachel.

6. My first horse was named Betty.

7. I didn't go on a date until I was 16.

8. My legs are too short.

9. The film I'm proudest of is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

                                                           

10. I never face the day without perfume.

11. I dreamed of designing perfume 25 years before I did it.

12. I love blood-orange juice.

13. My very first memory is of pain.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor after she became a Dame at Buckingham Palace.

14. I'm still heartbroken that Richard [Burton] never won an Oscar.

15. I am sincerely not worried about getting old.

16. I never tried to act until A Place in the Sun.

17. I am disgusted by the amount of myth about me that is accepted as fact.

18. People on Twitter named my new fragrance, Violet Eyes.

19. I've never had acting lessons, though many people think I need them.

20. In my twenties, I nearly lost my eye and my leg. Still have them both, tee hee.

21. Nerves are the nemesis of all actors.

22. I hate being called Liz, because it can sound like such a hiss.

23. I believe you can be close to God anywhere.

24. My dog Delilah is in love with my cat Fang. To each his own.

25. My family and people with HIV/AIDS are my life.

                                                             

                                                       
A Look at a Legend: James Dean 

 Elizabeth Taylor's famous pearl sells for $11.84m at NYC auction

A collection of late actress Elizabeth Taylor's jewellery will be auctioned online

Sotheby's to sell 400-year-old diamond - The Beau Sancy

Christie's To Auction 'Perfect' Diamond: Mined in Botswana 

White diamond set to fetch record $39 million at Sotheby's auction

The Bahia Emerald - The 400 Million Dollar Rock

Archduke Joseph Gem To Fetch At Least $15m at Auction

Petra Diamond Miners in South Africa Unearth a ‘Magnificent’ and ‘Exceptional’ Discovery At Cullinan

Argyle Diamond Jewellery Collection Tells A Dreamtime Story


Cartier Exhibition Features Pieces Once Owned By Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly

The Legendary Jewels of Elizabeth Taylor

The Millennium Star Diamond

A Look at a Legend: Elizabeth Taylor

The Most Expensive Coloured Diamonds in the World


 The Royal Jewels

Kashmir Sapphire Ring Fetches $7.3 Million At Auction
 

‘Fascination’: Graff’s $40 Million Diamond Transformable Watch 

The Rare ‘Blue Moon’ Diamond Is All Set To Become The Most Expensive Jewel, When It Goes Up On Sale

  Pink Diamond Could Fetch $28 million
 
 ‘Fascination’: Graff’s $40 Million Diamond Transformable Watch

How To Make Perfect Diamonds In The Microwave 
 
Cleopatra: Was She Killed By A Snake?

World’s Second-Largest Diamond Found In Botswana

A Brand New Phase Of Carbon Has Been Discovered 

Padmanabhaswamy Temple Treasure: Worth $22 Billion 

Some Of The Rarest Jewels In The World

Pakistan Claims Koh-i-Noor Diamond


Australian Company Lucapa Finds Huge Diamond In Angola

Argyle Violet Diamond Expected To Fetch Up To $4m At Auction

The Lesedi la Rona Diamond Could Fetch $US70m

Ancient Gemstone Lapis Back In Fashion

 
The “Oppenheimer Blue" Diamond Sells For $57.6 million at Christie's

Top Ten Lost Treasures of the World

Lucapa Diamond’s Road To Riches In Angola

Elizabeth Taylor's Bulgari Jewellery Goes On Show In Melbourne

Who Was Cleopatra? 

The Foxfire Diamond 

                                                           

                             

                                                                  

♥Remembering David Bowie♥

Is the David Bowie 'Constellation' A Stellar Hoax? 

                                                                  

                                                                       

'The Great Gatsby': Seven Life Lessons

                                                                        

                                                                          

                                                                       

                                                                       

I have read this book and watched both of these movies: The 1974 version and the 2013 version although it has been filmed several times.

The first time I saw it was in 1974.  It all seemed somewhat surreal and dreamlike to me. 

I very much doubt that back then I actually fully understood what F. Scott Fitzgerald was trying to say.

Of course I was a lot younger then, and now I comprehend and view things quite differently.

Because of this it is almost unnecessary to say which version I preferred. The message is the same: the stars and the styles are very different.

Baz Lurhmann is an incredibly stylish movie maker as we have seen in many of his other films  almost all of which I really enjoyed and have watched more than once.

They are artistic and full of impact. You don’t forget them easily which is a good thing as so many movies these days are quite forgettable in my opinion.

I think his version of “The Great Gatsby” works very well. It has a huge ‘wow factor’ as one can see in the set designs and costumes.

F. Scott Fitzgerald actually coined the term “The Jazz Age” and lived through these somewhat excessive times.You can hardly call them austere times!

It has been dubbed “ The Great American Novel”. I am quite sure it is one of them as it has been fascinating readers and movie goers for decades. And one can discuss it for ages.

I don't entirely agree with all these "Life Lessons". Especially the first one.

I don't think "Optimism" is futile: we all need it, and we all need "Hope" which is something Gatsby had in spades! 
It's what kept him motivated and alive until his inevitable, and possibly merciful, demise.

Happy birthday, F. Scott Fitzgerald! (actually September 24th).
The famed author of such Jazz Age stories as "Tender Is the Night" and "The Beautiful and the Damned" was born on this day in 1896 and would be celebrating his 117th birthday if he were still alive. 

We already know from his inspiring letter to a family friend that he could dole out excellent advice on writing, as he wrote: "You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner." And Fitzgerald's letter to his daughter, who was away at camp at the time, offers equally wonderful advice, as he lists off the things she should and shouldn't worry about (worry about courage; don't worry about the past). 

There's much to be learned from the author's fiction, too, especially his most famous novel, "The Great Gatsby." Here are seven life lessons we've taken away from the Great American Novel:

1. Optimism is a noble, if futile trait.
Throughout the book, Gatsby is characterized as being authentically hopeful, in spite of the adversity that he faces, and the lies he consistently tells. In the end, Nick almost idolizes him in spite of his dubious morality. Fitzgerald writes, "Gatsby turned out all right at the end," implying that, even though he died fighting for his passions, he went down nobly.

“This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament" -- it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”

2. Money can't buy you love (or friends).
Gatsby attempts to woo Daisy with his lavish parties and home, but ultimately, he fails, mostly because Tom informs her of the truth: He made his fortune in an illegal manner. What's more, none of Gatsby's party attendees show up to his funeral, aside from Nick. 

“At first I was surprised and confused; then, as he lay in his house and didn't move or breathe or speak, hour upon hour, it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested.”

3. Unbridled passion isn't always a good thing.
Gatsby and Daisy's brief affair goes unnoticed for a time, until Tom catches Jay making eyes at his lover out in the open. Perhaps if Gatsby had contained himself, the pair could have followed through with their whimsical plans.
But Tom's passion, when let loose, has even more of a detrimental effect; his red-hot emotion is quick to take a violent turn, as he slaps and injures his mistress, Myrtle, when she playfully teases him.

”"Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai - " Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.”

4. It's not easy to leave your past behind you.
As the tragic conclusion and poetic closing lines to Fitzgerald's book tell us, the past can be a messy thing to escape. As hard as Gatsby tries to shirk off his reputation as a bootlegger, he's unable to do so. 

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

5. Don't critique others
The book kicks off with Nick professing his inability to critique anyone less fortunate than himself, which we learn eventually leads to his empathy for Gatsby. His open-mindedness gives him a deeper perspective on the people around him and protects him from falling subject to the glitzy, surface-level materialism of the '20s. 

“I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.”

6. Physical beauty is fickle and fleeting.
From the moment we're introduced to Daisy, she seems more like a beautiful caricature of herself rather than an actual person. She flits and giggles and wins the heart of Gatsby, but ultimately leaves him in the dust in spite of his immense efforts. 

“The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.”

7. You know what they say about assuming.
Fitzgerald's tragic story quickly goes from sad to sadder, and many of the terrible events that unfold are based solely on false assumptions. When George discovers that his wife has died after being hit by a car, he assumes that Gatsby was the driver and proceeds to take revenge on him. In fact, Gatsby was covering for Daisy. Says Nick:

“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. “

                                                              

With many thanks to the Huffington Post

Update:

Great Gatsby somersaults Baz Luhrmann to 13 AACTA gongs

THE Great Gatsby has dominated the AACTA Awards for film and television, equalling the biggest haul of wins, 13, for a film.Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel converted all but two of its 14 nominations into wins, including a special award for its visual effects, 85 per cent of which were done by Australian companies.

The film missed only in the lead actress category where The Turning's Rose Byrne won her second AACTA Award beating Gatsby's Carey Mulligan, and the supporting actress category.

[,,,,,]

With thanks to The Australian (Pay wall)

Two Oscars for Costume and Set Design, and well-deserved!

15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Baz Lurhmann’s “The Great Gatsby”

More posts on literature:



Winnie The Pooh Named Kids' Favourite Book 
Charles Dickens: Literary Legend 
Spain Finds Don Quixote Writer Cervantes' Tomb In Madrid 
Where Do Fairy Tales Come From? 
The Top 10 Shakespeare Scenes 
The Best and Worst of Hollywood's Book Adaptations? 
Is This Pasted Note Jane Austen's Final Missive? 
Sherlock Holmes: Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hero Still Going Strong 
Alice in Wonderland at 150 
Father Of Anne Frank Listed As Co-Author Of Diary To Extend Copyright
Sir John Monash: Grantlee Kieza’s Biography
Julia Child’s French Cooking Book Was A Trail Blazer 
Fairy Tales Are Grim! 
Diggers discover Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess’, Martha Brown
Ben-Hur: A Remake On The Way
The Battle Over Troy
Shakespeare’s World Revealed In 400-year-old Handwriting
Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" Remade Again
Maggie Smith: Michael Coveney’s Biography 
The Book Of Kells: A Medieval Treasure
Mysterious 'Man in the Iron Mask' Revealed
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Press Pass for the Spanish Civil War Found 
Superheroes Of The Ancient World 

Palace Found At Tintagel, Fabled Birthplace Of King Arthur 
Ancient Egyptian Works To Be Published Together In English For The First Time
Who Was Cleopatra? 
The Untold Truth About The Holy Grail