Quotes

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.

Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.

One famous movie executive who shall remain nameless, exposed himself to me in his office. "Mr X", I said, "I thought you were a producer, not an exhibitor".

Shirley Temple doesn't hurt Shirley Temple Black. Shirley Temple helps Shirley Temple Black. She is thought of as a friend--which I am!

I'm not too proud of the movies I made as a grownup except for That Hagen Girl (1947), which nobody remembers but which gave me a chance to act.

I class myself with Rin Tin Tin. People in the Depression wanted something to cheer them up, and they fell in love with a dog and a little girl.

[to the Screen Actors Guild' in 2005] I've been blessed with three wonderful careers--motion pictures and television, wife, mother and grandmother, and diplomatic services for the United States government. I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the "Lifetime Achievement Award". Start early.

When I saw work shoes I would know that that person worked. I was very worried about people with shiny, pointed shoes as a child.

I was so short that I became an expert in belts and shoes and people's hands and handbags. I learned that I liked the working crew the most, more than the stars. I liked the guys that I worked with very, very much. It was my extended family. The crew worked on almost all of my films. We had a marvelous time. I had a "Shirley Temple Police Force" and all of the crowd and various celebrities I would have join my force. I was very careful that they kept their badges polished, and if they lost them there was a big fine. If they gave them away, there was a bigger fine. We had just so much fun. I teased them a lot, too, particularly the cameramen, who had a lot of trouble with me.

[on her adult experiences as a former child star] I do get pinched a lot. Mostly it's women, my peer group and even older than I am, and I'm old. They tend to want to touch. If I go on a tour I'll get pinched on the arm, the back, the cheeks, the chin. They say, "You're so cute", or "You were so cute". Then they hang on, and I come home black and blue. It's a hazard.

Sunnybrook Farm is now a parking lot; the petticoats are in the garbage can, where they belong in the modern world; and I detest censorship.

Good luck needs no explanation.

I ran for Congress just once.

I work a 17-hour day, and I'm personally responsible for 108 staff members in the embassy.

When I was 14, I was the oldest I ever was. I've been getting younger ever since.

We would have to invent the U.N if we did not have it, which is not an original thought.

When I left Fox, I went to MGM for one picture, thank goodness only one, and when I got there with my mother, we were separated, she went into the office of Louis B. Mayer, and I went into the office of Arthur Freed, and he was going to talk to me about a movie he wanted to put me in. I'm 12 years old then and I thought he was a producer, but instead he was an exhibitor, and I'd never seen anyone naked before except myself, so I had no clue about what was happening, and so it struck me so funny I laughed at him, and I laughed uproariously, I had tears [running down] you know, and he got infuriated, and he said 'Out out out! Go!' I was very quiet and I went and met her [mother] in the lobby of the administration building, she came out very quiet from Louis B. Mayer's office, and we walked hand in hand silently to the car, which was unusual. We got in the car driving home, I said 'Mom, you won't believe what happened to me', and I told her what happened, and she got kind of quiet, she said 'You don't know what happened to me!' And Louis B. Mayer wasn't as bad as Freed was to me, he came onto my mother, and so we both decided we didn't like MGM very much, it was better at Fox.