Parenting & Family Quote by Bette Davis

Bette Davis delivers this line like a perfectly aimed stiletto: funny, brutal, and just plausible enough to feel like a confession. On the surface it is a punchline about a single scene in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), a gothic, camp-leaning thriller built on the spectacle of two aging sisters locked in mutual cruelty. But the real target is offscreen. Davis and Joan Crawford’s rivalry had already curdled into legend by the time the cameras rolled; Hollywood had trained women to compete for scarcity - roles, youth, approval - then sold that competition back to the public as entertainment. Davis is simply refusing to pretend the system was civilized.

The genius is in the double meaning of “best time.” It plays as an actor’s memory of a great day on set, while smuggling in the fantasy of settling scores. Davis weaponizes candor: she gives you the scandal you came for, but on her terms, with her timing, and with a comedian’s control of rhythm. The specificity of “pushed her down the stairs” turns gossip into a clean image, instantly cinematic, instantly quoteable.

There’s also a chilly self-awareness about performance. The film is about women forced into grotesque roles by age and resentment; the feud around the film became its marketing engine. Davis’s remark collapses character, actress, and publicity into one sly gesture: if Hollywood insists on turning female friction into a genre, she’ll write the sharpest line and take the laugh.