- Joan Crawford: Friends? You think it's friendship I want from her? Is that what you think? You're wrong, it's respect. It's the only thing I ever wanted from her, or any of them for that matter. It's the one thing I've never got.
- Joan Crawford: My fans show up to a Joan Crawford picture expecting to see Joan Crawford.
- Bette Davis: This is not a Joan Crawford picture!
- Broadway Stage Manager: There's a lady here to see you.
- Bette Davis: Who is it?
- Broadway Stage Manager: Joan Crawford.
- Bette Davis: You're fucking kidding me.
- Hedda Hopper: Dateline Los Angeles: Stars of the night sky tend to keep to fixed orbits and never interfere with one another. Seems things sometimes operate that way in Hollywood, too. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, stars of equal magnitude who ruled in motion pictures in the fabulous '30s, never got to know one another. Now, in the Indian Summer of their careers, they're about to.
- Bette Davis: Did you fuck Joan Crawford?
- Robert Aldrich: No, I did not fuck her. Not that I didn't have ample opportunity.
- Bette Davis: We all know what special relationship Joan has with her directors.
- Robert Aldrich: Oh, come on, Bette. William Wyler?
- Bette Davis: Oh, I see someone has been a good little boy and done all his homework.
- Robert Aldrich: Bette, listen, here's the deal. Crawford's name on the marquee gets us distribution. I need her to get the picture made, but I need you to make the picture great.
- Bette Davis: Keep talking.
- Robert Aldrich: Bette, I've made my share of steaming piles of shit, but every now and again I get a chance to work with an artist like you. Someone who isn't afraid to leap off a cliff. Most people are terrified to go anywhere near the edge. Now, that gets me excited. I'm a kid again. Everything's possible. Bette, I promise you this is gonna be the greatest horror movie ever made. And Baby Jane's the greatest part you'll play since Margo Channing.
- Bette Davis: All right, answer this question, and don't lie. Why this picture?
- Robert Aldrich: Honestly? I'm not being offered anything else.