Quotes

[1991, on her return to the musical "A Little Night Music"] I've been doing songs from the show off and on through the years. So I've never really been away. Even a few months ago, I was singing "Send in the Clowns" for a charity performance. But my doctors were advising that I not work for a couple of months -- that I needed to relax, take it easy, do physiotherapy for my dental problems. More specifically, I had to make the decision about whether I wanted to come back playing another role: to hear somebody else eight performances a week, doing something that I was used to doing. You know, "Clowns" was written for me.

In classical theatre in Europe, everybody plays all kinds of parts. Juliets go on to play the Nurses; they don't want to play Juliet again. I think we've got to remember to grab onto our perks, whatever is the good thing about each age. Each stage of life should be a progression.

[on playing a mermaid in Miranda (1948)] I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine. I swam like a porpoise.

[on nepotism, 1946] Relatives cannot help you in the studios. You stand or fall by your own efforts. My father and I have only ever worked in one picture together - that was "Halfway House - and the producer was casting a father and daughter. Perhaps it was natural that he chose us, but my father did not get me that job, neither did I get him his.