SARAH BERNHARDT QUOTES
French actress (1844-1923)
I burn like a devil, and at the same time I am as happy as a god.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Idol of Paris
My fame had become annoying for my enemies, and a little trying, I confess, for my friends.
SARAH BERNHARDT
My Double Life
Life is short, even for those who live a long time, and we must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them.
SARAH BERNHARDT
My Double Life
I did nothing to attract attention. My somewhat fantastic tastes, my paleness and thinness, my peculiar way of dressing, my scorn of fashion, my general freedom in all respects, made me a being quite apart from all others. I did not recognise the fact. I did not read, I never read, the newspapers. So I did not know what was said about me, either favourable or unfavourable. Surrounded by a court of adorers of both sexes, I lived in a sunny dream.
SARAH BERNHARDT
My Double Life
My thinness is eccentric, people say. Well, what can I do? I should very much prefer to be deliciously ripe.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Fabulous Life of Sarah Bernhardt
I have a great horror of shams on the stage--of what will not bear close inspection--of what is not real. I never use spangles, tinsel, and cheap theatrical glitter--it offends my artistic sense. I always employ hand embroideries in bullion and silk, and will have nothing to do with the generally used appliqué embroideries on the stage, and I have found that what is the best always has the best effect, whether looked at from a distance or near at hand.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Strand Magazine, 1895
Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Art of the Theatre
My freedom of movement, the lightness of my step, the suppleness and flexibility of my body, I attribute to having definitely abandoned the corset, for an actress should wear nothing that is calculated to hamper and impede her movements.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Strand Magazine, 1895
What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty?
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Art of the Theatre
We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.
SARAH BERNHARDT
My Double Life
You must have this charm to reach the pinnacle. It is made of everything and of nothing, the striving will, the look, the walk, the proportions of the body, the sound of the voice, the ease of the gestures. It is not at all necessary to be handsome or to be pretty; all that is needful is charm.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Art of the Theatre
Yes, I have met with unsympathetic audiences in my time, but I don't know that an unsympathetic audience has much effect on me. I am not sure that I don't rather enjoy it for a change, for it is then a battle between me and them, and I always win.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Strand Magazine, 1895
Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
SARAH BERNHARDT
attributed, Madam Sarah
He was religious, very religious indeed, this uncle of mine, and after the death of my aunt he became a Carthusian monk. As I write these lines, ill and aged as he is, and bent with pain, I know he is digging his own grave, weak with the weight of the spade, imploring God to take him, and thinking sometimes of me, of his little Bohemian. Ah, the dear, good man, it is to him that I owe all that is best in me.
SARAH BERNHARDT
My Double Life
The artist's personality must be left in his dressing-room; his soul must be denuded of its own sensations and clothed with the base or noble qualities he is called upon to exhibit ... must leave behind him the cares and vexations of life, throw aside his personality for several hours, and move in the dream of another life, forgetting everything.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Art of the Theatre
Quand même.
SARAH BERNHARDT
Bernhardt's motto, a french phrase meaning "anyway" or "nevertheless"
No, no, no; the theatre is not a house of evil repute, nor are its followers evil doers: the theatre is a temple where the beautiful is always worshipped; it makes a continuous appeal to the higher senses and natural passions. In this temple vice is punished, and virtue rewarded; the great social problems are presented. In this temple instruction is less abstract, and, therefore, more profitable for the crowd. The apostles of this temple are full of faith and courage; they have the souls of missionaries marching always toward the ideal.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Idol of Paris
I regret that I cannot prove that I am a natural blonde.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Fabulous Life of Sarah Bernhardt
A defective voice will always preclude an artist from achieving the complete development of his art, however intelligent he may be.... The voice is an instrument which the artist must learn to use with suppleness and sureness, as if it were a limb.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Art of the Theatre
It is sometimes said that you Americans are devoid of sentiment; that in affairs of the heart you are like birds who come in early spring and sing while the trees are in blossom, but who leave with no sign of regret at the first touch of Autumn. I do not believe that. Your sentiment is of another kind. You are younger than we as a race, you are perhaps barbaric, but what of it? You are still in the moulding. Your spirit is superb.
SARAH BERNHARDT
"Bernhardt Triumphs in New Role", Theatre Magazine, 1920