Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Diane Cilento

"I was a hard worker, and I always knew my lines"

About this Quote

A quiet flex dressed up as professionalism, Diane Cilento's line is less memoir than positioning. "Hard worker" signals the grind that acting actually is: repetition, punctuality, rehearsal-as-labor, the unglamorous discipline that sustains the glamorous image. Then comes the sharper edge: "I always knew my lines". In an industry built on charisma and myth, she stakes her claim on the one thing you can measure. It reads like a rebuttal delivered with a smile.

The subtext is about credibility in a system that routinely treats women as decorative, replaceable, or "difficult" the moment they assert standards. Knowing your lines is the baseline expectation, so declaring it suggests the baseline was not evenly applied. She's hinting at a world where men are indulged for temperament while women are evaluated for competence, where being prepared becomes a defensive credential rather than an assumption.

Context matters, too: Cilento's career unfolded during a period when performance was often narrated through scandal, romance, and proximity to male stars. This sentence resists that framing. It's a refusal to be reduced to gossip or aura. She doesn't ask to be remembered as a muse; she asks to be remembered as reliable.

The intent, ultimately, is control: of narrative, of reputation, of legacy. It's an actress asserting authorship over her own story, using the plain language of the workplace to puncture the fog machine.

Quote Details

TopicWork Ethic
SourceHelp us find the source
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Cilento, Diane. (n.d.). I was a hard worker, and I always knew my lines. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-a-hard-worker-and-i-always-knew-my-lines-77996/

Chicago Style
Cilento, Diane. "I was a hard worker, and I always knew my lines." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-a-hard-worker-and-i-always-knew-my-lines-77996/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I was a hard worker, and I always knew my lines." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-a-hard-worker-and-i-always-knew-my-lines-77996/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Diane Add to List
Diane Cilento on Work Ethic and Preparedness
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Australia Flag

Diane Cilento (born October 5, 1933) is a Actress from Australia.

26 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Vivien Leigh, Actress