&quot;In December of 1955, just short of my 33rd birthday, I did something I&amp;#8217;d been threatening to do for a long time, something that no one really believed I&amp;#8217;d ever manage. No, it wasn&amp;#8217;t leaving the picture business, but it was close. I left the United States for good and all and settled in Spain. &amp;#8230; I don&amp;#8217;t know whether it was the weather, the people, or the music, but I&amp;#8217;d fallen head over heals in love with the place from the first moment I&amp;#8217;d arrived years before. I felt emotionally close to Spain &mdash; who can really say why? &mdash; and the Spanish people responded in kind, accepting me without question. Which couldn&amp;#8217;t have been easy for them. After all, I represented everything they disapproved of. I was a woman, living alone, divorced, a non-Catholic, and an actress.&quot;
-Ava Gardner