Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman.
After 20 years making films, I finally returned to the theatre in 1960.
After I got to Hollywood, I resented that I didn't get a crack at more dramatic roles because I photographed so beautifully.
Almost all of my friends in the picture business have died.
As the 1960s began, a new breed of Hollywood leading lady was emerging. She was elegant, international, and wonderfully comedic.
Audiences in London called me the girl with the black cherry eyes.
Charles Laughton signed me to my first movie contract at 17. He later asked my parents if he could adopt me.
Comedy is difficult, especially slapstick. The trick is to have fun while you are performing it.
Daddy comforted me by being the most decent man I have ever known.
Duke was my best friend for 40 years.
Every star has that certain something that stands out and compels us to notice them.
First marriage was never consummated. I was pushed into it. I went from there to the boat for the United States of America.
God has a most wicked sense of humor.
Henry Fonda gave me a spanking during a scene in Spencer's Mountain.
How could you get angry with Jackie Gleason?
How could you have had such a wonderful life as me if there wasn't a God directing?
I am like many of the women I have played onscreen.
I dainty little lass I wasn't. I looked twice my age until I turned 10 or 11.
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 don't remember having a crush on a boy when I was a girl. I don't even remember my first kiss.
I grew up in the theater and danced ballet atrociously.
I had always been a tomboy - I still am, at heart.
I had no money to pay for the meals. I had a bottle of vitamins. And I took all the vitamins, one after the other.
I had to make the rounds and be seen at all the right places if I was ever going to be a star of any significance in Hollywood.
I have never been openly defiant, not ever.
I have never lost my faith in God.
I have only part of my first finger.
I knew that Jamaica Inn was going to make me a star.
I know what John Wayne to the world. He was what they believed Americans were.
I loved sports. I loved soccer, football. I loved the fights. So I enjoyed the stunts.
I met Charlie in 1947 when I first went back to Ireland.
I really wanted to be an opera soprano.
I saw myself as Joan of Arc.
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.
I was born into the most remarkable and eccentric family I could possibly have hoped for.
I was caught napping during a break on The Quiet Man. It was sunny and gorgeous almost every day.
I was not the typical American movie star; I was very different from the other stars and starlets.
I was tough. I was tall. I was strong. I didn't take any nonsense from anybody.
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.
I'm afraid a lot of the people today don't know which way to read the script, upside down, sideways or backward.
I'm really honestly terrified about how much I should tell and how much I should still keep secret.
I'm terrified about the day that I enter the gates of heaven and God says to me, just a minute.
I'm very lucky I really had some wonderful movies.
If you had to go somewhere, the studio sent a representative with you. You were sent in a limousine. And you were taken care of.
In 1946, I fought to be recognized as Irish when I became a dual national.
In the beginning it was all black and white.
In the Virgin Islands we get a mist or fog from Africa at a certain time every year.
Jimmy Stewart and I danced the twist in Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation.
John Candy knew he was going to die. He told me on his 40th birthday. He said, well, Maureen, I'm on borrowed time.
John Wayne was one of the greatest ambassadors for the United States that ever lived.
Lost in a crowd of greats, not a single Oscar. That's showbiz.
Making movies is just like betting on horses at the racetrack.
Many women have written to me over the years and said that I've been an inspiration to them.
Marlon Brando wasn't Hollywood's favorite, not by a long shot.
My early training in drama, music, and dance started at the age of 6 and continued for 11 years, until I made my first movie.
My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace.
My house here in LA is a disgrace. You go in the front door and you think you're going to be drowned in paper. It's all over the place.
My whole life was foretold to me. An old Romany gypsy read my fortune.
On July 1, 1952, I filed for divorce from William Houston Price on grounds of incompatibility. My 10-year nightmare had finally come to an end.
One time I was taking a little too long in the toilet and Mr. Zanuck sent for me. And he said, what are you doing that takes so long?
President Roosevelt assured me that Ireland would one day be part of the Communist bloc.
Rehearsals for a play are always long and tiring. The rigorous work leading up to opening night was no surprise to me.
Some time ago, I told Larry King that I planned to live to be 102. I still do.
The depth of John Candy's talent did surprise me. He was one of my all-time favorite leading men.
The Dinah Shore Show launched me as a musical guest star. It marked another turning point in my career.
The Parent Trap gave my career another boost, starring in family comedies.
The Parent Trap wouldn't have been as special without the remarkable performances by Hayley Mills.
The Queen Mary was the most civilized and luxurious way one could travel to America in the late 1930s.
The studio thought I was crazy to perform all of my own fencing stunts, but I loved it.
There's a terrible truth for many women in the picture business: Aging typically takes its toll and means fewer and less desirable roles.
They said my nose was too big and they wanted to bob my nose. I said, sorry. If that's what you want, buy me a ticket and I'll go home.
Tough Brian Keith was a natural at comedy.
When How Green Was My Valley finally wrapped, I thought John Ford was a walking god.
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.
Whether I liked it or not, I was now a property of the powerful Hollywood studio system.
While one is working on a motion picture, it's natural to get mad at others from time to time.
Maureen starred in an unsold pilot for a CBS comedy series, "Daphne," in which she played a single mother, in 1966.
Maureen appeared in magazine ads for Lux Soap in 1950.
Maureen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.
Maureen preferred to do her own stunts, in films like Against All Flags (1952), where she played a female pirate captain.
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