Helen: I wanna be free. I wanna be gay and have fun. Life's short. And I wanna live while I'm alive.


--Jean Harlow (as Helen) in Hell's Angels

Helen: Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?


--Jean Harlow (as Helen) in Hell's Angels

Lillian 'Lil': [trying on a dress in a store, Lil positions herself in front of a sunny window] Can you see through this?
Off-camera store clerk: I'm afraid you can, Miss.
Lillian 'Lil': I'll wear it.
Off-camera store clerk: Oh!


--Jean Harlow (as Lillian 'Lil' / 'Red' Andrews Legendre) in Red-Headed Woman

Lillian 'Lil': Listen, I'm on my way up to the boss' house with his mail.
Sally: Why didn't his secretary do it?
Lillian 'Lil': Because I swiped it off her desk. These are important and they've gotta be answered right away. Maybe I'll get a chance to stay and take dictation.


--Jean Harlow (as Lillian 'Lil' / 'Red' Andrews Legendre) in Red-Headed Woman

Lillian 'Lil': Well you son-of-a-sea-snake! Have you got on my new pajamas?
[Sally hesitates guiltily]
Lillian 'Lil': Yeah, well you shake right out of 'em, Hortence.
Sally: [annoyed] Alright!
Lillian 'Lil': I'm too important these days to sleep informally.
[removes her blouse]
Lillian 'Lil': What if there'd be a fire?
Sally: You'd have to cover up to keep from being recognized.
[camera pans down to Lil's legs as Sally hands her the silk pajama pants]
Lillian 'Lil': [climbing into the pajamas] Say love, let's have a little more respect from you, now that I belong to one of the fine old families...
Sally: Oh, yeah? If I were you I'd go a little bit slow.
Lillian 'Lil': Whaddyou mean by that?
Sally: Well, Bill Legendre and his wife might get together and decide that you were merely a strange interlude.
Lillian 'Lil': Strange interlude, nothing! When I kiss 'em, they stay kissed for a long time.
Sally: Well, see you don't get left holdin' the bag, sweetheart, full of nothin' but air. You better hang on to that bootlegger of yours.
Lillian 'Lil': [incredulous] What? Go on with Al after Bill Legendre? Oh no, I've started on the upgrade, and whatever happens, baby, I'm in the big leagues now.


--Jean Harlow (as Lillian 'Lil' / 'Red' Andrews Legendre) in Red-Headed Woman

Mona Leslie: [Spoken introduction to the song, Reckless] What'll you ever be? What'll you ever do? How will you ever know if you don't take a chance?
Chorus: You have got to gamble with fate.
Mona Leslie: [singing] I wanna live, love, learn a lot. I'll light my candle and I'll burn a lot.
Chorus: You'll have some bad shots, hard knocks!
Mona Leslie: I'm on my own if I bruise.
Chorus: And there'll be smiles here, shouts here!
Mona Leslie: And I can take it on the chin if I lose, because I'm reckless!
Chorus: She's simply reckless!
Mona Leslie: Reckless!
Chorus: She's simply reckless!
Mona Leslie: I'm gonna go places and look life in the face!


--Jean Harlow (as Mona Leslie) in Reckless

Ruby: You wouldn't be a bad looking dame, if it wasn't for your face.


--Jean Harlow (as ) in Hold Your Man

Vantine: I thought we might run up a few curtains and make a batch of fudge while we were planning on what to wear to the country club dance Saturday night.


--Jean Harlow (as Vantine) in Red Dust

Vantine: What you been eatin', cement?


--Jean Harlow (as Vantine) in Red Dust

Dot: You know, addressing envelopes ain't' as tough as it's cracked up to be.
Cassie Barnes: No?
Dot: No. There's a lot of money in it. I doped the whole thing out a while ago. At a dollar and a half a thousand, if I sell an envelope to everybody in the United States, I'd make fifty thousand dollars!
Cassie Barnes: That's swell. Have you figured out how long it's going to take you to do that?
Dot: Oh, um... About two-hundred and fifty years.
Cassie Barnes: I had no idea there was such a future in it.


--Jean Harlow (as ) in Three Wise Girls