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

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

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

Fred Astaire was my dream dancer.

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.

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

I went to the school of hard knocks.

We didn't have any real proper school. We did not have a place to go to learn to dance and the joy of dancing.

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

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

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.'

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

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

I never thought I would live this long.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Every performer should learn a little bit of everything.

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

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

That's my business, show business.

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

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

Robert Wagner was my greatest crush.

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

I would never not work.

The truth is I loved an audience.

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

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.

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

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.

All of my husbands have robbed me blind.

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

I'm very religious. I believe that things happen, and you have to go along with them.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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