Shirley Maclaine Quotes & Sayings

Being a dancer meant you nearly always thought about food. — Shirley Maclaine

I don't like to socialise much. — Shirley Maclaine

My first few weeks in New York were an initiation into the kingdom of guts. — Shirley Maclaine

All life is a boomerang. We receive what we give. — Shirley Maclaine

Things are done according to money these days. — Shirley Maclaine

The more sex becomes a non-issue in people's lives, the happier they are. — Shirley Maclaine

Well, when you're relaxed, your mind takes you to the whole reality. There's no such thing as time when you're really relaxed. That's why meditation works. — Shirley Maclaine

We cannot divorce what we are producing from what we are. We create technology out of the vision we have of ourselves. If we are blind in our conception of ourselves we will create a blind technology. — Shirley Maclaine

Films and life are like clay, waiting for us to mold it. And when you trust your own insides and that becomes achievement, it's a kind of principle that seems to me is at work with everyone. God bless that principle. God bless that potential that we all have for making anything possible if we think we deserve it. — Shirley Maclaine

The pickings are pretty slim when you have to play the part of a housewife who doesn't go out of her apartment because she's afraid she's going to get mugged, or a woman who turns into her brother, who is a murderer. — Shirley Maclaine

Ballet is the repetitive training of the body for the purpose of executing steps in traditional fashion. It is tied to and bound by the past. It is a disciplined beauty consciously preserved in the image of the old days in societies that were class-conscious and appreciative of elitist physical expertise. — Shirley Maclaine

When you walk 10 hours, 11 hours a day by yourself, you are doing a walking meditation. — Shirley Maclaine

I don't like leaving my dog when I go to England and she is with me all the time. — Shirley Maclaine

People think I'm nuts. — Shirley Maclaine

For if the talent or individuality is there, it should be expressed. If it doesn't find its way out into the air, it can be turned inward and gnaw like the fox at the Spartan boy's belly. — Shirley Maclaine

Movie makers now choose profit over vision. — Shirley Maclaine

A person who knows how to laugh at himself will never ceased to be amused. — Shirley Maclaine

I was afraid I would get the Oscar for 'Irma La Douce' because it was popular. But I didn't want to because I didn't really think it was that good. — Shirley Maclaine

Sex is hardly ever just about sex. — Shirley Maclaine

I've been through so much of my own self-search that I'm not as consumed with who I am as I used to be. — Shirley Maclaine

All you really need in life is some fresh water, a good hat, and a really good pair of shoes. — Shirley Maclaine

To dance at all is to confront oneself. It is the art of honesty. — Shirley Maclaine

Dance is an art that imprints on the soul. It is with you every moment, it expresses itself in everything you do. — Shirley Maclaine

When times are bad, people like to lose themselves in the sheer glamour of another period: beautiful wardrobes, magnificent meals served in elegant settings. — Shirley Maclaine

Well, success does not mean doing well. — Shirley Maclaine

Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. It's where all the fruit is. — Shirley Maclaine

He [Jimmy Carter] says his lust is in his heart. I hope it's a little lower. — Shirley Maclaine

I think male actors get confused by their own vanity. — Shirley Maclaine

One can become as intellectually arrogant about spirituality as about empirical science. — Shirley Maclaine

The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends. — Shirley Maclaine

On things she had to pack before leaving her home in advance of a forest fire, 1996. Childhood pictures and pictures of my life. Do you know how many pictures that is? Not just this life; I have pictures from 13,000 lives. — Shirley Maclaine

We feel the urge to tell the truth as we see it. But we should try to accomplish this without judgemental condemnations that hurt others. Again, when we remember that what we perceive in another is a reflection of ourselves, we become less judgemental. So when we freely express harsh judgement of another, we are in effect talking about those aspects of ourselves that trouble us the most. — Shirley Maclaine

I had a video made of my recent knee operation. The doctor said it was the best movie I ever starred in. — Shirley Maclaine

I simply channeled a character, this time I allowed the character to inhabit me. — Shirley Maclaine

In order to get to the fruit of the tree, you have to go out on a limb. — Shirley Maclaine

I have to do two things at once or I get tired. — Shirley Maclaine

I'm not one for wardrobe. — Shirley Maclaine

No one ever really leaves Hollywood. No one really leaves unless they are called away by God. Even then, the impulse would be to come back again and make a movie about the experience. — Shirley Maclaine

Acupuncturists
Chiropractors
Massage Therapists
Dentists
and more! — Shirley Maclaine

I don't feel competitive. — Shirley Maclaine

I mean, no one asks beauty secrets of me, or 'What size do you wear?' or 'Who's your couturier?' They ask me about really deep things and I love that. — Shirley Maclaine

I love the idea that I'm the oldest one in the room because I can get away with anything! — Shirley Maclaine

The loss of magic is the denial of unlimited possibility. — Shirley Maclaine

It's useless to hold a person to anything he says wile he's in love, drunk, or running for office. — Shirley Maclaine

Crystals amplify the consciousness. — Shirley Maclaine

If I had a party to attend and didn't want to be there, I would play the part of someone who was having a lovely time. — Shirley Maclaine

I don't think you go out of style when you're living in the present most of the time. And I think that is what I do. — Shirley Maclaine

What we live with is ourselves. And when you have your own identity you are much easier to live with. — Shirley Maclaine

I'd like to go to another planet, which I might live long enough to accomplish. Just get on a spaceship and go. But not the moon. I don't see any flowers there. The moon is too close. I want to go further. — Shirley Maclaine

I've always thought I was looking for myself whenever I traveled. Like a journey anywhere was really a journey through myself. — Shirley Maclaine

Until mankind realizes that there is, in truth, no good, and there is, in truth, no evil-there will be no peace. — Shirley Maclaine

Maybe the tragedy of the human race was that we had forgotten that we are each divine. — Shirley Maclaine

Nothing should be permanent except struggle with the dark side within ourselves. — Shirley Maclaine

There are stars who are proficiently paranoid enough to hide what they really think. I can't. — Shirley Maclaine

In some ways, America has grown up to be a masterpiece of self-concern. — Shirley Maclaine

The spirit is something to be enjoyed. It is not a harsh discipline. And I think people should take some time everyday for some kind of moving meditation, like Qigong or Tai Chi. — Shirley Maclaine

One individual is his or her own best teacher, and no other idol or false image should be worshiped or adored because the God we are all seeking lies inside oneself, not outside. — Shirley Maclaine

The illusion never really dissipates that you can lose twenty pounds in one night by cutting out dinner. — Shirley Maclaine

I don't have an assistant. I make a lot of people around me my slaves, but no assistant. — Shirley Maclaine

The uninvestigated life is not worth living. I don't want to live that way. — Shirley Maclaine

Release and resolve fear, and what you want flows freely. — Shirley Maclaine

Hollywood always had a streak of the totalitarian in just about everything it did. The old moguls were essentially hard-fisted authoritarians who had created a system of linked dictatorships to control the creative people. We were supposed to be the children; mad, tempestuous, brilliant, talented, not terribly smart children. — Shirley Maclaine

When things get rough, a breakthrough is just on the other side of the pain. — Shirley Maclaine

I have a lot of friends who are around. I'm having a wonderful time in my life now with my platonic relationships with men and women, because when that sexual tension is off the requirement of the interplay, then you get to who the people really are, and to yourself. — Shirley Maclaine

The soul is everlasting, and its learning experience is lifetime after lifetime. — Shirley Maclaine

You think you have a handle on God, the Universe, and the Great White Light until you go home for Thanksgiving. In an hour, you realize how far you've got to go and who is the real turkey. — Shirley Maclaine

It's real important to enjoy your turn. — Shirley Maclaine

Technology has outstripped our knowledge of self. — Shirley Maclaine

Audrey was the kind of person who when she saw someone else suffering tried to take their pain on herself. She was a healer. She knew how to love. You didn't have to be in constant contact with her to feel you had a friend. We always picked up right where we left off. — Shirley Maclaine

Women being pitted each other another in Hollywood is an old tactic, but it's not real at all. — Shirley Maclaine

Perhaps the longest journey is the journey within. — Shirley Maclaine

I can be a lazy slob. — Shirley Maclaine

I think the hill one has to trudge in order to understand a man's baggage is more of a trek than I'd like to take right now. — Shirley Maclaine

I think the world is in the mess it's in because we are spiritually ignorant. — Shirley Maclaine

You have to be talentedly insecure in order to be a good actress. And then it's the director's job to make you more miserable and get a good take. — Shirley Maclaine

I never would have given up my work to stay home. — Shirley Maclaine

We need proof in our society. — Shirley Maclaine

The secret is to let the audience feel through the actress, rather than having the actress feel for the audience. When you can do that, you involved the audience almost without their knowledge or awareness. — Shirley Maclaine

We are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we see the world. — Shirley Maclaine

Anything is possible if you believe you deserve it. — Shirley Maclaine

I think we plan everything, somehow, on another level. — Shirley Maclaine

One of the most erogenous zones of a woman is her intelligence. — Shirley Maclaine

To release others from the expectations we have of them is to really love them. — Shirley Maclaine

I think people will become more and more aware that we are all more than we seem. — Shirley Maclaine

He's a real gentleman. I bet he takes the dishes out of the sink before he pees in it. — Shirley Maclaine

The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused. — Shirley Maclaine

God bless that potential that we all have for making anything possible if we think we deserve it. I deserve this. — Shirley Maclaine

There's no journey worth taking except the journey through one's self. That's the most important journey you take. I found that out as I went around the world many times: I was learning about me. — Shirley Maclaine

New York is the perfect town for getting over a disappointment, a loss, or a broken heart. — Shirley Maclaine

I look like a real bag lady when I go to Starbucks with my dog and get my chai. — Shirley Maclaine

Being old is such a treat! — Shirley Maclaine

Of course, we're all a mass of contradictions. — Shirley Maclaine

My gift is that I'm not beautiful. My career was never about looks. It's about health and being in good shape. — Shirley Maclaine

I'm an expert in hookers. I'm an expert in doormats. I'm an expert in victims. They were the best parts. And when I woke up
sociologically, politically, and creatively
I could no longer take those parts and look in the mirror. — Shirley Maclaine

The best way to get husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they are too old to do it. — Shirley Maclaine

You have to surrender to the energy above and below. — Shirley Maclaine

I live in too many cities. — Shirley Maclaine

You can't take a crash course in serenity. — Shirley Maclaine

Listen to sounds beyond silence. — Shirley Maclaine

I mean, I'm just speaking of my own experiences and my own desires, and it's a kind of a childlike wonder that could really possibly speculate on other dimensions. — Shirley Maclaine