Shirley Temple

“When I asked my mother why crowds shouted my name and said 'We love you,' she would dust it off by saying, 'Your work makes them happy.' She never let it go to my head.”

“When you're a performer, you have to please a large audience. And when you're in politics, you have to please a large audience, too.”

“Make-believe colors the past with innocent distortion, and it swirls ahead of us in a thousand ways in science, in politics, in every bold intention.”

“I was in Vienna in August 1968 for a meeting of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies, of which I was co-founder, and we wanted a 20th country to join. They asked for a volunteer to go to Prague to get Czechoslovakia to do it, and my hand always goes up first.”

“If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't change anything. I probably would have paid for the pleasure of working.”

“I'm not too proud of the movies I made as a grownup except for 'That Hagen Girl', which nobody remembers but which gave me a chance to act.”

“Studio chief Winfield Sheehan wanted me to remain a little girl. If I lost my innocence, he said, it would show in my eyes.”

“Men say, 'I've loved you since I was 7 years old,' and I say, 'Well, you never contacted me.' And very often women say, 'Do youuuuuu know what I have?' and I want to say, 'Yessssssss, I do.' Because inevitably the answer is, 'An original Shirley Temple doll.'”

“At the end of the Depression, people were perhaps looking for something to cheer themselves up. They fell in love with a dog and a little girl. It won't happen again.”

“I remember telling President Carter on his first night, when I was escorting people around, that I was interested in continuing public service and that politics didn't matter - but it does, doesn't it?”

“שלא כמו כל כך הרבה ילדים־כוכבים אחרים, שלא ידעו להתמודד עם חיי הזוהר בגיל כל כך צעיר, דווקא טמפל, הכוכבת־ילדה הגדולה מכולם, שלא עברה שום דבר שאפילו דומה לילדות נורמלית – הגיחה מצידה השני של הילדות המטורפת כאדם שפוי, נבון ויציב נפשית.”

“לשחק דורש את הקטן שבכישרונות; אחרי הכול שירלי טמפל עשתה זאת בהיותה בת ארבע שנים בלבד.”

“הפסקתי להאמין בסנטה קלאוס כשהייתי בת שש. אמא לקחה אותי לראות אותו בחנות כלבו והוא ביקש את החתימה שלי.”

“ביוגרפיות שלי נאספו בדרך כלל מקטעי עיתונים, סיפורי פרסום לא נכונים וזיכרונות של אנשים שטוענים שהם מכירים אותי היטב.”

“כשראיתי נעלי עבודה, הייתי יודעת שהאדם הזה עובד. דאגתי מאוד מאנשים עם נעליים מבריקות ומחודדות בילדותי.”

“הספיק לי להעמיד פנים. רציתי להיות בעולם האמיתי.”

“הרעיון של להיות בבית ספר אמיתי עם בני גילי היה נראה הרבה יותר מרגש מאשר לעשות סרטים.”

“I guess I was an early method actress. I would go to a quiet part of the sound stage with my mother. I wouldn't think of anything sad, I would just make my mind a blank. In a minute I could cry.”

“I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award: Start early!”

“I wanted to be the first girl in my class to get married. From the seventh grade on, I used to write in my yearbook under each senior's picture, 'married' or 'engaged.' I had marriage on the brain.”