Darwin Porter - Elizabeth Taylor: There is Nothing Like a Dame

She is one of the most misunderstood and underestimated people of our time.

Truman Capote

Nobody on earth is better company than Elizabeth Taylor, more lively, more fun, and more of a three-ring circus. When I began seeing her, she was fifty-five and better than ever. The year was 1986. She had divorced Senator John Warner and shed all that weight that John Belushi lampooned on Saturday Night Live. For Elizabeth, looking great was the best revenge.

George Hamilton in Dont Mind If I Do

She was a femme fatale. I was an homme fatale. We made a fatal combination. She told me she wanted to marry me, but she was still a struggling actress at the time. I told her she couldnt afford me.

Porfirio Rubirosa to Elsa Maxwell

Lets face it: My life seems to lack dignity.

Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth was a committed wife at least for the first week.

Lana Turner

Elizabeths favorite pastime was celebrity gossip. Her definition of celebrity included royalty, world leaders, writers, artists, and musicians, and the occasional Greek billionaire. She needed gossip as fuel to shock at dinner parties. She had to know who was sleeping with whom, who was great in bed, and who was not, and who was well hung. The gay secretaries were especially good at collecting that necessary information, especially Richard Hanley, whose years at MGM had made him a sexpert on the entire film industry.

Vicky Tiel , Its All About the Dress

I lied about being a virgin on my wedding night. Actually, my first sexual experience was giving John Derek a blow-job when Id just learned to walk, which is only a slight exaggeration. I was very, very young at the time, and he was a child molester.

Elizabeth Taylor at a dinner party in Gstaad in 1968

Elizabeth should have acquired more jewelry and fewer husbands. But who am I to cast stones, dah-link?

Zsa Zsa Gabor

That Krupp diamond is far too vulgar to wear in public.

Princess Margaret

After Elizabeth and I smelled each other out, we became two fast friends. Bitches in heat recognize each other.

Laurence Harvey

My troubles all started because I have a womans body and a childs emotions.

Elizabeth Taylor

I was torn in my loyalties between two goddessesBessie May and Pussy.

Monty Clift , using his nicknames for Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe

I called Elizabeth Taylor and told her that Monty Clift was being held a prisoner in his apartment in New York. He got involved with this dangerous hustler. Hes bringing in guys who want to fuck Monty and charging them a hundred dollars a lay. Youve got to come and rescue him.

Truman Capote in Key West

What is this, a memory test?

Elizabeth Taylor , responding to the justice of the peace at her wedding to Larry Fortensky when he asked her the names of her former husbands.

You know, an actress can learn to hate Elizabeth Taylor.

Patricia Neal

I often fucked actors who liked to fuck each otherPeter Lawford, Monty Clift (well, I tried at least), Rock Hudson, James Dean, Paul Newman. Or, actors who other actors wanted to fucknamely George Hamilton, Robert Wagner...do we have all night?

Elizabeth Taylor

No raise. Now get out. Youre such a whore.

MGMs casting director Benny Thau to Elizabeth Taylor after denying her request for a pay raise

Burt Lancaster raped me that night back in April of 1961 after wed won our joint Oscars for Butterfield 8 and Elmer Gantry. Well, it wasnt rape exactly, but a gal can pretend, cant she?

Elizabeth Taylor in 1975

Elizabeth Taylor got to sample my noble tool when we made Reflections in a Golden Eye together. Burton found out and was seriously pissed off, probably because I didnt fuck the sod himself.

Marlon Brando to Carlo Fiore

Drugs have become a crutch. I wouldnt take them just when I was in pain. I needed oblivion, escape...I was hooked on Percodan and of course, I could drink everybody under the table. I had a hollow leg. My capacity to consume was terrifying. I didnt even realize I was an alcoholic.

Elizabeth Taylor

I guess in time all of us fucked her. I know Sammy did. So did Frank. So did Peter, a long time ago. Joey Bishop was the only one who didnt join the rat race.

Dean Martin about Elizabeth Taylor

What did you expect me to do sleep alone?

Elizabeth Taylor to Hedda Hopper

The trouble with Elizabeth Taylor is that she always envied my sex appeal. She just didnt have it, and I did.

Marilyn Monroe to Clark Gable

I have written a sequel to The Wizard of Oz about a 60-year-old Dorothy returning to Oz and Im talking to Elizabeth Taylor about starring in it. She told me she wants to play the role, and she would be perfect for it.

Rod Steiger, 1998

Yes, its true. On that infamous night I recited the Gettyburg Address at the Lincoln Memorial wearing nothing but a mink coat. Ask Halston. He was the designer who dressed me.

Elizabeth Taylor

In this Age of Vulgarity, marked by such minor matters as war and poverty, it gets harder every day to scale the heights of true vulgarity. But given some loose millions, it can be done and, worse, admired.

The New York Times on the Taylor/Burton roadshow

I know Im vulgar, but would you have me any other way?

Elizabeth Taylor

Does it matter what Maureen Stapleton weighs? Why the hell does it matter what I weigh? Its nobodys damn business what I weigh, but talking about it seems to be a national pastime. And that pisses me off!

Elizabeth Taylor

I visited her in London in the hospital when she had that trachotomy. She had what looked like a silver dollar in her throat. I couldnt figure out what held it in place, and it surprised me she wasnt bleeding or oozing. A few nights later, I went out with Eddie Fisher. The next afternoon, Elizabeth told me that Eddie thought I was trying to make a pass at him. At that moment, she played a trick on me and yanked at the plug in her throat, spurting out champagne Id brought her a magnum of Don Perignon all over the hospital room. I thought I was going to pass out.

Truman Capote

After I married Mike Todd, he invited Eddie Fisher into our bedroom and pulled the sheet off me, exposing my nude body to Eddie. I think he really wanted a mnage trois. There are those who say we had one.

Elizabeth Taylor

She had the face of an angel and the morals of a truck driver. Wed make love three, four, five times a day. Wed make love in the swimming pool, on Mexican beaches, under waterfalls, in the back seat of a limousine on the way home from a party. There was nothing more erotic than a moonlit beach and Elizabeth Taylor.

Eddie Fisher

Did I seduce Mike Todds son and Peter Lawfords son? I wouldnt put it past me.

Elizabeth Taylor

I think Elizabeth is having an affair with Sammy Davis, Jr., but she dismisses the notion, joking that just over five foot tallSammy couldnt reach that high.

Richard Burton

Do you want to know some people I screwed that most people dont know about? Ardeshir Zahedi, the Iranian ambassador to the United States. Would you believe that Swedish boxer, Ingemar Johansson? Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn, John and Bobby (guess who?), Prince Aly Khan.

Elizabeth Taylor, overheard by the author in 1961, in a bar in Portofino

If you leave me I shall have to kill myself. I love you. There is no life without you.

Richard Burton during his second divorce proceedings from Elizabeth Taylor.