“... of the will-to-greatness, or the artist’s certainty of superiority. Balzac, in Cousin Bette, distinguishes Wenceslas Steinbock, the talented demi-artist, from the real thing in a marvellous passage which also plentifully insults the masses, whom Balzac calls ‘blockheads’. The demi-artists, he says, appear superior to real artists, who are ...”

“... Misérables, The Woodlanders, Great Expectations, Lolita, Washington Square, Mrs Dalloway, Cousin Bette, Oscar and Lucinda, Julian Barnes’s Metroland and three works by Conrad. From a Daily Express review of The Talented Mr Ripley in February 2000, I learned three new words in the space of a single clause: ‘a conspiracy of patriarchal decorum in which ...”

“... superstar; and publicly she was clearly a monstre sacré almost indistinguishable from any other (Bette Davis, for example), a person entirely different from the unworldly, dedicated creator and pure fount of originality she had been during the first half of this century. In those days she had exemplified the difficulty of telling the dancer from the dance as ...”

“... women preferred being attractive in the depraved modern way, like Dietrich and Garbo, or maybe Bette Davis, and dressing, like the rest of the modern world, in imitation of Paris. Folk-dress invoked notions of national purity, meaning no make-up and no permanent waves, no smoking and no cocktails. Some eager Nazi supporters went in for it, but only the ...”

“... stood up and looked around the day room with a surprised and slightly dismayed expression, like Bette Davis in some old movie. ‘Shall we go for a walk?’ she said. It was clear, from her tone, that refusal was not an option. It doesn’t sound like a very auspicious beginning, I suppose, yet over the next few days Cathy and I became new best friends ...”

“... character, given this faculty, might have noticed that Bellow’s use of Baron Hulot, from Cousine Bette, had already been used as an instance of indestructible desire in The Dean’s December and Humboldt’s Gift. Or that Forster’s aphorism ‘How do I know what I think till I see what I say?’ had already appeared (uncredited) in Humboldt’s ...”

“... based on Nelly’s life and personality and there was talk that the part would be played by Bette Davis. But it came to nothing. Thomas Mann and his family continued to dislike Nelly. When she and Heinrich needed sponsors to regularise their stay in America, Heinrich turned to his brother, who wrote to him in February 1941: That I am doing it for you ...”

“... Kansas, where Stanley Ann was born in 1942. (The name was a homage to her father but also to Bette Davis, Madelyn’s favourite actress, who played a character called Stanley in a movie released that year, In This Our Life.) Always looking for the next big break, her father kept the family on the move, bumping around the American West for years until ...”

“... she sang at Carnegie Hall, where the adoring audience included Marilyn Monroe, Richard Burton, Bette Davis, Julie Andrews, Debbie Reynolds and Mickey Rooney. The recording of that concert spent thirteen weeks at number one on the Billboard album charts. Like ‘taking nineteen hundred wake-up pills’ was the way she once described the thrill of hearing an ...”

“... all this Hollywood dreck, Ben?’ Roth wanted to know, ‘And why are you gay men so beguiled by Bette Davis?’ Yeah, Ben, what gives? Roth: ‘You don’t look twice at Ava Gardner, who was, to put it mildly, more attractive. She had an enduring sexiness, even in London. In the 1980s. When I had her.’ When I had her: how the phrase just rolls off the ...”

“... owns CNN. On his first night, he wakes up at 1.30 a.m. to tweet that the 73-year-old entertainer Bette Midler is a ‘washed up psycho’.The president says it is ‘fake news’ that there were mass protests in London against his visit: ‘I heard that there were protests. I said where are the protests? I don’t see any protests.’ On Fox & Friends ...”

“... in her words. You’ve heard it from time to time in the movie tones of Marlene Dietrich or Bette Davis. It was late, I’d been in bed for some time. I pretended to be asleep when she walked into the dark room and told me. I didn’t know what to say, and I was frightened by what would happen to the voice if it was encouraged to go on. Besides, I had a ...”