I wasn't close to my father, but I wanted to be all my life. He had a funny sense of humor, and he laughed all the time - good and loud, like I do. He was a gay Irish gentleman and very good-looking. And he wanted to be close to me, too, but we never had much time together.
From the time I was thirteen, there was a constant struggle between MGM and me - whether or not to eat, how much to eat, what to eat. I remember this more vividly than anything else about my childhood.
I think that I have every right to write a book. I think I'm interesting. I have perspective about me.
I've never looked through a keyhole without finding someone was looking back.
It's lonely and cold on the top... lonely and cold.
My mother had a marvelous talent for mishandling money - mine.
I believe that the real expression of your religious beliefs is shown in the daily pattern of your life, in what you contribute to your surroundings and what you take away without infringing on the rights of other people.
I've always taken 'The Wizard of Oz' very seriously, you know. I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I've spent my entire life trying to get over it.
In our house, the word of Louis B. Mayer became the law.
For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
I try to bring the audience's own drama - tears and laughter they know about - to them.
I was always lonesome. The only time I felt accepted or wanted was when I was on stage performing. I guess the stage was my only friend: the only place where I could feel comfortable. It was the only place where I felt equal and safe.
Lions and tigers, and bears, oh my!
In the silence of night I have often wished for just a few words of love from one man, rather than the applause of thousands of people.
We cast away priceless time in dreams, born of imagination, fed upon illusion, and put to death by reality.
My father's death was the most terrible thing that happened to me in my life.
I've seen the ticket, and I still can't believe it. When I see the money, I hope I don't hit the floor.
If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?
I'm the original take-orders girl.
Behind every cloud is another cloud.
I think there's something peculiar about me that I haven't died. It doesn't make sense but I refuse to die.
I can live without money, but I cannot live without love.
There have been a lot of stories written about me, some of them fantastically distorted.
You are never so alone as when you are ill on stage. The most nightmarish feeling in the world is suddenly to feel like throwing up in front of four thousand people.
How strange when an illusion dies. It's as though you've lost a child.
Twas not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
Well, we have a whole new year ahead of us. And wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, a little more loving, and have a little more empathy, and maybe, next year at this time we'd like each other a little more.
If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role.
There have been times when I have deliberately tried to take my life... I think I must have been crying for some attention.
I don't always have to sing a song. There is something besides 'The Man That Got Away' or 'Over the Rainbow' or 'The Trolley Song.' There's a woman. There are three children. There's me! There's a lot of life going here.
I'm a woman who wants to reach out and take 40 million people in her arms.
Hollywood is a strange place if you're in trouble. Everybody thinks it's contagious.
When you get to know a lot of people, you make a great discovery. You find that no one group has a monopoly on looks, brains, goodness or anything else. It takes all the people - black and white, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant, recent immigrants and Mayflower descendants - to make up America.
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of being a second-rate version of someone else.
A really great reception makes me feel like I have a great big warm heating pad all over me. People en masse have always been wonderful to me. I truly have a great love for an audience, and I used to want to prove it to them by giving them blood.
If I'm such a legend, then why am I so lonely? Let me tell you, legends are all very well if you've got somebody around who loves you.
