Debbie Reynolds

I tour all year, 42 weeks a year, so it's hard for me to remember every place I play.

The only way to make it through life is to fight.

I never thought I would live this long.

Carrie is my child, and I love her with every ounce of strength I possess.

I spent some special years in my hometown of El Paso.

It took, like, 30 years for Carrie to be really happy with me. I don't know what the problem ever was. I've had to work at it.

It's very hard when your child doesn't want to talk to you and you want to talk to them, and you want to touch them, you want to hold them.

'Singin' in the Rain' and childbirth are two of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life.

Everyone I dated was gay.

So many things that happen to you are so dreadful, it's important to have a sense of humour.

My lifetime dream has been to assemble and preserve the history of the Hollywood film industry.

When you were under contract, you did what you were told to do.

I don't have an agent - I have the William Morris Agency.

I don't know fancy big words, because I didn't have a rich mother who sent her to fancy schools.

We were very old-fashioned. My preacher at church told me I could not go in to the movies because it would make me a 'wanton woman.'

That's what I love about dance. It makes you happy, fully happy.

I was just a beginner, and she and I were not in any manner alike, but we got along very well because I was in awe of going to school with Elizabeth Taylor.

All the training at MGM came to be a great help for me on 'Molly Brown.'

Robert Wagner was my greatest crush.

I think it's one thing to be able to dance, and it's another thing to learn all the wonderful moments of dance because in my day... it was the moving of dance.

I was raised to think that if you behaved badly with men, you went to hell. I realise now it is puritanical and not very adult.

I got to sing a wonderful song called 'I Ain't Down Yet.' Well, I ain't.

I loved to party with the Rat Pack; they were so much fun.

He caressed my backside. I had heard that he was famous for his 'admiration' of the ladies, but I didn't expect him to be handling my booty. As handsome as Prince Philip is, I wasn't sure if he was making a pass or just exercising some royal rights to squeeze the foreigners.

Every performer should learn a little bit of everything.

I've had to walk through a lot of my tears.

I'm going to stay on stage until I drop dead. Then I'm going to have myself stuffed, like Trigger, and I'm going to put me in a museum.

I went to the school of hard knocks.

I had the sets that meant so much to this character built - right in my home, especially the kitchen, which was important both for her character and for your introduction to her when Albert comes to visit.

Gene Kelly was hard on me, but I think he had to be.

I'm always sad to see a relationship not work, but what happens between two people is not my business.

Too many mothers have lost their children, for thousands of different reasons.

We were very poor, and I entered a talent contest as a young teenager because if you entered, even if you didn't win, they gave you a free blouse.

Hollywood has been an enormous part of my life, as I know it has been for countless fans all over the world.

Those were hard times, but I loved living there. I would walk on the tracks, hopping, skipping. I enjoyed the neighborhood, I enjoyed El Paso. I remember being chased by tumbleweeds on windy days; they came up to my neck.

My husbands all repeatedly said the same thing - that I was not a very passionate woman.

Fred Astaire was retired when he worked in 'The Pleasure of His Company.' They were lucky to get him to play the father part.

It takes a long time to realize a situation is for real, and then you finally face it.

I can pick good food, but I can't pick a good man.

I always feel, as a mother does, that I protect her. Who will do that when I'm gone?

I stopped making movies because I don't like taking my clothes off. Maybe it's realism, but in my opinion, it's utter filth.

We slept in the park before we had a house, and eventually we shared a home - my parents, my grandparents and five uncles, my family, all of us - on White Oaks Street by Magnolia Street near the railroad. Those were hard times, but I loved living there.

I'm 78. We've lost a lot of our great stars. I can't hang out with those who aren't here. The phone service to Heaven is so bad, you know. But I get to visit with their memories.

Manic depressive is a disease.

I'm a sucker for a good movie.

Old age is a wonderful time of life. At least, that's what everyone tells you. But let me tell you: it is not true. What's true is that your hips, knees and ankles gradually give up on you - everything is quite dreadful, really. And it was a terrible thing to have told us because we believed it.

Everything about the studio was enormous. You walked through the gates of iron, and it was palatial looking. The first day, I was introduced to Clark Gable. He said, 'Hello, kid. Welcome to MGM. I'm just leaving.'

I don't think you can ever be bitter about anything, because if you don't allow your heart to stay open, then all you have is a filled heart of hate and bitterness, and you're never able to love or like anybody.

Travel is hard, but entertaining is joy.

I miss the movies. Still, I understood that my kind of movie has had its day. I thought it was over for me.

Drama's unhappy, and playing someone unhappy would make me unhappy.

Gene Kelly was one of the greatest dancers of all time and a taskmaster. He sought from you the absolute best - and he got it.

Music will bring you through... It brought me through.

I'm an Aries and sort of a challenge to myself.

In life, I'm like Molly Brown. I've had tough times along the way and gone through experiences that many women have gone through. But I ain't down yet.

I was just like Jennifer Aniston with Brad Pitt when he fell in love with Angelina Jolie.

You don't have to be angry and become an ugly person.

I have very poor taste in men, and I married all the wrong men.

My marriages have been one of the greatest voids in my life.

I would never not work.

If love alone could cure our children, they would always be well.

I wanted to be as comfortable in that environment as she was. I moved around those areas in character.

Lana Turner and Ava Gardner were my special friends at MGM.

We all knew each other in the neighborhood. I loved living in El Paso. I had a wonderful childhood there.

I like being a Girl Scout.

The truth is I loved an audience.

I always loved to entertain and show off in front of the neighbors. I would sing and dance at their houses.

Well, one of the things I did was recreate her home in my home.

I wanted to get that sense of peace and even boredom that comes with long familiarity.

All of my husbands have robbed me blind.

I've always been a good mother, but I've always been in show business, and I've been on stage, and I don't bake cookies and I don't stay home.

I love having my ghosts, and I love having my memories.

It seemed that I was more interested in raising my children, not in pursuing my husbands.

My dreams kind of came through when I went to see the cinema.

People used to call her Debbie Reynolds' daughter. Now they call me Princess Leia's mother!

I just think my life's been really blessed, because being in show business, I've met wonderful people, and I've traveled all over the world.

I gave it all that I had, and it's gratifying that others seem to be receiving it so well.

I loved Fred Astaire's way of dancing. He led you into the dance.

I want happiness for my daughter - I want Carrie to be happy.

You don't get there the easy way. If you feel sorry for yourself, and you let yourself go down, you will drown.

You just never give up. You do a task to the best of your abilities and beyond.

That's my business, show business.

I wish I could have been more enlightened at 18 and learned more about men because I could have avoided all the traps.

Gene Kelly was a little tough, and he used to yell at me on the set.

My first husband ran off with Elizabeth Taylor.

Liberace - or Lee, as us friends called him - was great. He was gay, you know.

I knew Mrs. Liberace. Lee and I were great friends. I know the whole inside story.

I should see a board of directors who should vote on who I should date.

If your husband's going to leave you for anyone, it might as well be Elizabeth Taylor.

'The Unsinkable Molly Brown' was my favorite for me to be in because it was all dancing. There were other musicals that I made with Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly that were wonderful pictures, and we had a lot of fun making them.

I loved music and dance, and that was exciting to me.

I believed that the husband takes care of the family, and the wife takes care of him, and they are true to each other. I know that sounds a romantic illusion, but it can be true.

Bette Davis was a close friend. She loved to have a good time.

You all know who she is. There's very little she isn't.

My son, Todd Fisher- he has been such a wonderful son and brother.

We were rather poor, but we always had what we needed.

It's not natural to outlive your child. This has always been my greatest fear.

Fred Astaire was my dream dancer.

My mother, Maxine, was married at 16 to my father Raymond, and in 56 years together, he was the only man she ever had.

As a parent, you must give your opinion. And if that causes a breach, then it causes a breach.