“She was magnificent and exasperating, luminous and bellicose in equal measure. Her longtime boss, Jack Warner, called her “an explosive little broad with a sharp left.” Humphrey Bogart once remarked, “Unless you’re very big, she can knock you down.” She was a force of nature, a blazing talent. She was Bette Davis.”

“Bette Davis: The Larger-Than-Life Star at Home in 1930s Beverly Hills” by Ed Sikov, in Architectural Digest (March 2006)
http://www.architecturaldigest.com/homes/hollywood/archive/davis_article_032006