Marguerite Clark – photos and quotes

“Why should I tell about myself? Isn’t it true that the less of a mystery one is, the less interesting one becomes?” — Marguerite Clark

Source: George Vaux Bacon (1916)

“Facts are tiresome and ridiculous to some, I know. But you know I am very matter-of-fact. Oh, quite matter-of-fact. I know I don’t look it; but I am. I am working simply to earn my bread and butter, and my ambition is to find a good play. Do you know of one? No. It is a pity. I shall remain in the pictures until I find one. You see how matter-of-fact I am. I confess that I really much prefer the stage to the pictures. I know that I am not supposed to say so; but I do. After all, one loves to be able to talk.” — Marguerite Clark

Source: George Vaux Bacon (1916)

“I know that pantomime is really a wonderful thing. There is a tremendous amount of art in it; but I confess that the stage and the lights and the people, and the fine, sonorous phrases written by a master for me to speak fittingly have a fascination that I cannot forget. I will never be able to forget it; but one must live. I work in the pictures and I give the best that I can. That is my duty to the people who come to see my work.” — Marguerite Clark

Source: George Vaux Bacon (1916)

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“I am practical, but it’s because I’ve had to be ever since I was a little child. When my sister and I were left, both pretty young, with just a little money in the bank by the death of my father, we decided that we would not touch our capital, but would start out to make some more money so that we would always have a little to add to it. That was how I came to go upon the stage, and we have our first little capital to this day!” — Marguerite Clark

Source: George Vaux Bacon (1916)

Photo: 1908

“No man can realize what a terrible thing it is for a girl to be without any money. She is far more cruelly at the mercy of the world than any man is. I tell you, it is very necessary for a young woman to be practical.” — Marguerite Clark

Source: George Vaux Bacon (1916)

“I have no desire to have my heart broken. I have always taken good care not to leave it around or lose it, and so far it has not even been cracked. I think it is worth clinging to. Why, I should think one would be unable to work, or think, or anything when one is miserably broken-hearted.” — Marguerite Clark

“One would think that the little acts of kindness which cost nothing and which can be done so easily, would never be neglected, particularly by people who really feel that they love each other, but I believe that most of the unhappiness in the world comes from the neglect, not of great things, but just of the little things. It is the little things that count, after all. It is the smile, the little word of graciousness, the small courtesy here and there, the mist of thoughtfulness that show one what another really thinks. Many of those little things are unconscious, which make them all the more to the point. If one doesn’t like a person, one naturally does things that show it, and if one does like a person, one cannot help showing it, unconsciously as well as consciously. There is something deeper than the mere surface in that matter of liking and disliking, too…Don’t you often find – or don’t you always find, rather – that when you meet people, you either like them or not, without any particular reason, and that that first opinion never changes? I believe that that is at the bottom of the reason why it seems so impossible to do away with things like war. People just naturally like or dislike one another, and nothing seems able to change it.” — Marguerite Clark

“I had spent two years of hard work on the study of the technique of the screen and I’m not going to let that long period of hard work go for nothing; so I shall continue to appear on the screen. I enjoy my work just as a man enjoys his business. But there is no career in the world – no matter how brilliant – that could be half so enjoyable to me as a quiet home in the country with my friends and my pets.”  — Marguerite Clark 

Source: Lillian Montanye (1917)

“The reason I never consent to an interview about the pictures is because I really have nothing new to say. People who know the subject have dealt with the question so much better than I could. Now what I think about the pictures is that there should be more out of doors scenes.” — Marguerite Clark

Source: Edward S. O’Reilly (1918)

“My work at the studio requires so much of my time that there are really few hours left for social life. We live very quietly, my sister and I. Usually I spend my evenings reading. When I get a little vacation time there is always something to be attended to – the dentist or the dressmaker. Sometimes I run out to Chicago and visit my relatives. Of late, I am trying to do some serious reading. The old classics I neglected in school days. I have no time for the lighter modern fiction. The magazines for instance.” — Marguerite Clark

Source: Edward S. O’Reilly (1918)

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