Comedy is difficult, especially slapstick. The trick is to have fun while you are performing it.

In the beginning it was all black and white.

My whole life was foretold to me. An old Romany gypsy read my fortune.

Audiences in London called me the girl with the black cherry eyes.

Comedy is difficult, especially slapstick. The trick is to have fun while you are performing it.

The Parent Trap wouldn’t have been as special without the remarkable performances by Hayley Mills.

I knew that Jamaica Inn was going to make me a star.

There’s a terrible truth for many women in the picture business: Aging typically takes its toll and means fewer and less desirable roles.

The Queen Mary was the most civilized and luxurious way one could travel to America in the late 1930s.

My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace.

As the 1960s began, a new breed of Hollywood leading lady was emerging. She was elegant, international, and wonderfully comedic.

I have never lost my faith in God.

I didn’t let anyone push me into things I didn’t want to do where my career was concerned. So why did I crumble when it came to men?

I really wanted to be an opera soprano.

Lost in a crowd of greats, not a single Oscar. That’s showbiz.

I grew up in the theater and danced ballet atrociously.

How could you have had such a wonderful life as me if there wasn’t a God directing?

When How Green Was My Valley finally wrapped, I thought John Ford was a walking god.

Making movies is just like betting on horses at the racetrack.

How could you get angry with Jackie Gleason?

God has a most wicked sense of humor.

I’m really honestly terrified about how much I should tell and how much I should still keep secret.

The Parent Trap gave my career another boost, starring in family comedies.

John Wayne was one of the greatest ambassadors for the United States that ever lived.

Every star has that certain something that stands out and compels us to notice them.

I don’t remember having a crush on a boy when I was a girl. I don’t even remember my first kiss.

Some time ago, I told Larry King that I planned to live to be 102. I still do.

Above all else, deep in my soul, I’m a tough Irishwoman.

After I got to Hollywood, I resented that I didn’t get a crack at more dramatic roles because I photographed so beautifully.

I saw myself as Joan of Arc.

The depth of John Candy’s talent did surprise me. He was one of my all-time favorite leading men.

I watch and listen to movies today and am shocked by the way actors deliver their lines. Everybody mumbles now and I don’t understand why.

John Candy knew he was going to die. He told me on his 40th birthday. He said, well, Maureen, I’m on borrowed time.

I am like many of the women I have played onscreen.

Charles Laughton signed me to my first movie contract at 17. He later asked my parents if he could adopt me.

Henry Fonda gave me a spanking during a scene in Spencer’s Mountain.

I spent a great deal of time with Che Guevara while I was in Havana. I believe he was far less a mercenary than he was a freedom fighter.

When I was young, I was told that I had a sulky, pouty face.

When you try to battle with John Ford, you have to give in.

I was born into the most remarkable and eccentric family I could possibly have hoped for.

I dainty little lass I wasn’t. I looked twice my age until I turned 10 or 11.

The studio thought I was crazy to perform all of my own fencing stunts, but I loved it.

I had always been a tomboy – I still am, at heart.

I’m terrified about the day that I enter the gates of heaven and God says to me, just a minute.