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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

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On Things She Had

Shirley MacLaine

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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.

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More From Shirley MacLaine

Dance Is An Art That Imprints On The Soul. It Is With You Every Moment, It Expresses Itself In Everything You Do.

It's Not Going To Be About Money. It's Going To Be About Who Am I, What Have I Done And Where Am I Going.

I Think Of Life Itself Now As A Wonderful Play That I've Written For Myself, And So My Purpose Is To Have The Utmost Fun Playing My Part.

I Don't Do Like Diva Trips And Stuff.

Bonding Through Dependence Never Works, Whereas Bonding Through Freedom Always Does.

I Can't Give Up My Own Identity.

I Hoped That The Trip Would Be The Best Of All Journeys: A Journey Into Ourselves.

I Wasn't Afraid Of Getting Old, Because I Was Never A Great Beauty.

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.

Remember What People Used To Say About Meditation? Now Everyone Is Doing It.

All You Really Need In Life Is Some Fresh Water, A Good Hat, And A Really Good Pair Of Shoes.

I Realized That If What We Call Human Nature Can Be Changed, Then Absolutely Anything Is Possible. From That Moment My Life Changed.

I Don't Know Why Anybody Would Be In Awe Of Me.

One Can Become As Intellectually Arrogant About Spirituality As About Empirical Science.

You Know, I Have Never Had A Casting Couch Proposition In My Life. I Thought There Was Something Wrong With Me.

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.

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.

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.

The More I Traveled The More I Realized That Fear Makes Strangers Of People Who Should Be Friends.

If You're Comfortable With Yourself-which Everyone Can Get To, To Some Extent-that's When You Start Getting Into Who Is Your Real Self.

The Illusion Never Really Dissipates That You Can Lose Twenty Pounds In One Night By Cutting Out Dinner.

Movie Makers Now Choose Profit Over Vision.

To Dance At All Is To Confront Oneself. It Is The Art Of Honesty.

I Have Never Seen Myself As Leading For Others. What's Important Is That I Know Who I Am. Not Completely. But I'm Coming Around Third Base.

And I Think We'll Be Able To Prove Scientifically That Other Talents Such As Intuitive, Psychic, Clairvoyant And Audiovoyant Are Very Real.

The More Sex Becomes A Non-issue In People's Lives, The Happier They Are.

My Gift Is That I'm Not Beautiful. My Career Was Never About Looks. It's About Health And Being In Good Shape.

I Have To Do Two Things At Once Or I Get Tired.

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.

Never Trust A Man When He's In Love, Drunk, Or Running For Office.

My First Few Weeks In New York Were An Initiation Into The Kingdom Of Guts.

Friendship Is Not Linear. It Moves In All Directions, Teaching Us About Ourselves And About Each Other.

All Life Is A Boomerang. We Receive What We Give.

Until Mankind Realizes That There Is, In Truth, No Good, And There Is, In Truth, No Evil-there Will Be No Peace.

Being A Dancer Meant You Nearly Always Thought About Food.

My Mother Was Canadian, So You Never Knew What She Was Thinking.

We Are Not Victims Of The World We See, We Are Victims Of The Way We See The World.

You Let The Energy Go Wherever It Wants. I Have Such A Rich Spiritual Life. Most People Take Drugs To Experience That.

The Loss Of Magic Is The Denial Of Unlimited Possibility.

I Think In The End We All Know That Our Best Friend Is Ourselves. We Are Born Alone And We Die Alone. That's The Journey.

I Loved The Idea Of Doing A Love Story With People Over The Age Of 60 And A Film That Will Hopefully Give So Many Of The Audience A Chance To See Themselves On The Screen.

I Think The World Is In The Mess It's In Because We Are Spiritually Ignorant.

I'm An Artist, Therefore I Think I Am Sensitive To Human Pain.

For Me, The Safest Place Is Out On A Limb.

You Can't Lie When You Dance. It's So Direct. You Do What Is In You. It Is Impossible To Dance Out Of The Side Of Your Mouth.

A Person Who Knows How To Laugh At Himself Will Never Ceased To Be Amused.

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.

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.

The Best Way To Get Husbands To Do Something Is To Suggest That Perhaps They Are Too Old To Do It.

Don't Be Afraid To Go Out On A Limb. It's Where All The Fruit Is.

Sometimes People Who Have Their Lives Played Out In Public Don't Feel They Have The Privacy To Continually Journey Within. I Did, And That's Why I Have Longevity.

Sometimes I Feel An Impingement Of Something I Went Through In Another Lifetime. But I Like To Concentrate On The Absolute Present. That's Why I Love My Animals. They Live In The Present.

You Know When You Eat Too Many Sweets And Get Diabetes? Paparazzi Are The Diabetes Of Materialistic Culture.

New York Was The Only City I Knew In The World Where You Could Be Desperately Lonely At Nine In The Morning, Crossing The Street For A Bagel At Gristede's, And Find That Seven Hours Later You Were Drinking Irish Coffee At P.j. Clarke's With All The Friends You Had Inherited Along The Way.

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.

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.

I Think Male Actors Get Confused By Their Own Vanity.

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.

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.

Sex Is Hardly Ever Just About Sex.

On The Stage You Try To Act Real. On The Screen You Try To Be Real.

It's A Big Deal For Me To Say I'm Over Politics.

I Think We Have To Do Something About The Environment And How We Are Polluting The Planet.

I Do Miss The Stage. There's Nothing Like It, Nothing. When I Did My One-woman Show And Played The Palace And Played The Gershwin And All That, I Did - What? - Eight Shows Or Maybe More A Week. Of Course You Can't Do Anything Else, And You Can't Run Quickly For A Cab In The Rain, And You Can't Have A Drunken Love Affair. You Can't Do Any Of That. Because You've Got To Be Perfectly Healthy. And I Guess I Value Enjoying My Life A Little Bit More Than The Discipline These Days.

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.

Technology Has Outstripped Our Knowledge Of Self.

Usually I'm Right, By The Way - So Never Mind All The Other.

I Simply Channeled A Character, This Time I Allowed The Character To Inhabit Me.

What We Live With Is Ourselves. And When You Have Your Own Identity You Are Much Easier To Live With.

I Can't Advise Any Of The Young Ones, Because I Don't Know What Their Background Was, But I Would Suggest That Anyone Who Wants To Be Famous More Than Anything - There's A Problem.

Of Course I'm Schooled In The Old School Method: Taking What I Think The Director Wants, Then Reworking It Through My Own Brain And Heart.

You Are The Architect Of Your Personal Experience.

Personal Experiences

I Believe In Ufos, I Believe In Extraterrestrials, And I Believe In Angels. And Maybe They'll Protect All Of Us.

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.

Someday Change Will Be Accepted As Life Itself.

I'm Not Sure I'll Come Back To This Planet. I May Come Back To Another One.

Things Are Done According To Money These Days.

I Was Always A Character Actress And Never A Sex Symbol. Even When I Was The Leading Lady, I Was A Character Actor.

If They Would Teach Us From The Time We're Little To Meditate And Get In Touch With All That Our Souls Know, We Wouldn't Fight So Much.

When A Child Comes In, I Believe That It's A 'multipersonhood,' And It Knows It, Its Consciousness Knows It, And It Has A Nuclei In The Center Of Its Consciousness That Is The Repository Of All Experience And All Knowledge. And When You Look In The Eyes Of Your Baby And You Feel This Sense That They Are An Old Soul, I Believe Indeed They Are.

Of Course, We're All A Mass Of Contradictions.

People Think I'm Nuts.

I Think Materialism Has Trumped A Lot Of Stuff, But I Don't Think It Has Trumped The Heart, Especially When It Comes To (a Person's) Last Thought.

New York Is The Perfect Town For Getting Over A Disappointment, A Loss, Or A Broken Heart.

Perhaps The Longest Journey Is The Journey Within.

I've Gotten Crankier In My Old Age.

Someday Perhaps Change Will Occur When Times Are Ready For It Instead Of Always When It Is Too Late. Someday Change Will Be Accepted As Life Itself.

Melt Their Weapons, Melt Their Hearts, Melt Their Anger With Love.

Why Do People Have To Love People Anyway?

We Humans Should Never Forget Our Capacity To Connect With The Collective Spirit Of Animals. Their Energy Is Essential To Our Future Growth.

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.

I Have A Lot Of Friends Who Come And Stay, And We Talk About The World.

Lots Of Friends

I'm Not Unaware Of How I'm Perceived, I Just Don't Care About It. Unless I Really Hurt Someone's Feelings. I Care About That.

Being Old Is Such A Treat!

Prayer Is Speaking To God. Meditation Is Listening To God. Trust Tranquility.

Listen To Sounds Beyond Silence.

If Anything Interferes With My Inner Peace, I Will Walk Away. Arguments With Family Members. All That Stuff. None Of It Matters.

I've Always Thought I Was Looking For Myself Whenever I Traveled. Like A Journey Anywhere Was Really A Journey Through Myself.

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.

Then Come The Lights Shining On You From Above. You Are A Performer. You Forget All You Learned, The Process Of Technique, The Fear, The Pain, You Even Forget Who You Are You Become One With The Music, The Lights, Indeed One With The Dance.

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.

He [jimmy Carter] Says His Lust Is In His Heart. I Hope It's A Little Lower.

I Would Say The Biggest Risk I Always Take Is Going In Front Of A Live Audience. There's Nothing More Risky To Do. You Have To Really Leave Yourself Open To Your Own Authenticity, And You Find That Out Pretty Quick.

I Look Like A Real Bag Lady When I Go To Starbucks With My Dog And Get My Chai.

To Release Others From The Expectations We Have Of Them Is To Really Love Them.

I've Made So Many Movies Playing A Hooker That They Don't Pay Me In The Regular Way Anymore. They Leave It On The Dresser.

It Is Incredible, When You Start Believing In Angels Your Life Becomes A Lot Smoother.

The Uninvestigated Life Is Not Worth Living. I Don't Want To Live That Way.

The Pain Of Leaving Those You Grow To Love Is Only The Prelude To Understanding Yourself And Others.

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.

Live In The Present

I Could Be Whatever I Wanted To Be If I Trusted That Music, That Song, That Vibration Of God That Was Inside Of Me.

You Know, I Think I Had My First Past Life Recall When I Was 7.

Crystals Amplify The Consciousness.

He's A Real Gentleman. I Bet He Takes The Dishes Out Of The Sink Before He Pees In It.

Remember, I Come From Such An Excessively Overdone, Red-carpet Place Called Hollywood. So I'm Used To People Blowing Up Their Success In Ways That Are Far Above And Beyond The Truth.

I Don't Feel Competitive.

Fear Is Concealed In Smiles And Flashing Teeth. 'please Say You Still Love Me,' The Kings And Queens Are Really Saying. And, When They Fare Badly, They Return To Their Palaces And Sleep Fitfully.

It's Useless To Hold A Person To Anything He Says While He's In Love, Drunk, Or Running For Office.

I'm Not One For Wardrobe.

I'm A City Girl And I Never Really Lived In The Country, So I'm Learning About That.

I Had A Video Made Of My Recent Knee Operation. The Doctor Said It Was The Best Movie I Ever Starred In.

If We Can Genuinely Honor Our Mother And Father We Are Not Only At Peace With Ourselves But We Can Then Give Birth To Our Future.

I Think When I Was In My Early Twenties And Middle Twenties I Didn't Even Know I Wasn't Living Up To My Potential. A Couple Of Friends Told Me I Wasn't And Told Me To Get My Act Together, And It Made A Huge Impact On Me.

I'm A Peaceful Person Once Work Ethic Is Established. If People Are Around Me And Whatever I'm Doing Is Efficient, Then I'm Extremely Peaceful.

I Watched My Head Rolling On The Floor. It Landed Face Up And A Big Tear Came Out Of One Eye.

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.

I Make My Mistakes In Public.

In Some Ways, America Has Grown Up To Be A Masterpiece Of Self-concern.

Some People Think I Look Like A Sweet Potato, I Consider Myself A Spud With A Heart Of Gold.

The Comedy Of Class, Played So Straight, Is A Wonderful Thing For An Actor To Sink Their Teeth Into.

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.

I Don't Have An Assistant. I Make A Lot Of People Around Me My Slaves, But No Assistant.

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.

Nothing Should Be Permanent Except Struggle With The Dark Side Within Ourselves.

I Think People Will Become More And More Aware That We Are All More Than We Seem.

I Don't Need Anyone To Rectify My Existence. The Most Profound Relationship We Will Ever Have Is The One With Ourselves.

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.

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.

I Love The Idea That I'm The Oldest One In The Room Because I Can Get Away With Anything!

In Order To Get To The Fruit Of The Tree, You Have To Go Out On A Limb.

Crystals Are Amplifying Minerals. You Have A Crystal In A Radio - It Amplifies The Sound Waves. You Have A Crystal In A Television Set - It Amplifies The Light Waves. When You Hold Crystals, They Amplify Thought Waves.

Maybe The Tragedy Of The Human Race Was That We Had Forgotten That We Are Each Divine.

It's Real Important To Enjoy Your Turn.

...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.

We've Had So Many Lifetimes Of Different Cultures And Different Religions And Different Points Of View And Different Wars And Different Loves And Different Children.

You Can't Take A Crash Course In Serenity.

The Mob Taught Me How To Play Gin Rummy.

Fear Makes Strangers Of People Who Would Be Friends.

An Actor Has Many Lives And Many People Within Him. I Know There Are Lots Of People Inside Me. No One Ever Said I'm Dull.

Dwelling On The Negative Simply Contributes To Its Power.

Positive Thinking

... When Things Get Rough, A Breakthrough Is Just On The Other Side Of The Pain.

I'd Like To Introduce Someone Who Has Just Come Into My Life. I've Admired Him For 35 Years. He's Someone Who Represents Integrity, Honesty, Art, And On Top Of That Stuff I'm Actually Sleeping With Him.

Celebrate What Is Possible. Your Beliefs Will Create Your Reality.

I'm Very Aware, But I'm Very Naïve. When You Are Really Naïve And Expecting Safety And Expecting The Best, You Don't Feel You're Taking Risks. You Can Get Smacked A Little, But Usually It Works Out Pretty Well. I Would Say That, As Much As You Can Instill Your Open-minded Naivety, If You're Basically Open Minded, Then You Can Do Damn Near Anything.

Art Is About Energy Positive And Negative. All Art Has The Power To Heal Because It Helps Us See Who We Are, And What We Resist.

Once You Get Your Own Family Clear In Your Head, Whatever Your Problems Are With It. You're Better Prepared For Being An Adult In The World.

In Terms Of My Life, I Guess I Want To Share Whatever I've Learned Really, Which Is Basically One Thing: Know Yourself, Look For Yourself, Know What To Look For, Cherish It, Be Honest, Be Authentic, Even If It Hurts Your Feelings. That's Not Bad.

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.

I'm Very Involved With Learning To Be Self-sufficient.

Self Sufficient

There Are Stars Who Are Proficiently Paranoid Enough To Hide What They Really Think. I Can't.

Anything Is Possible If You Believe You Deserve It.

Anything Is Possible

I Think It's Much More Important To Know The Truth Than It Is To Make Money On It.

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.

God Bless That Potential That We All Have For Making Anything Possible If We Think We Deserve It. I Deserve This.

If I Could Know Me, I Could Know The Universe.

I Want Women To Be Liberated And Still Be Able To Have A Nice Ass And Shake It.

Acupuncturists Chiropractors Massage Therapists Dentists And More!

I Have A Great Life, To Tell You The Truth.

I'm Too Direct And Too Unsparingly Impatient.

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.

When Times Are Bad, People Like To Lose Themselves In The Sheer Glamour Of Another Period: Beautiful Wardrobes, Magnificent Meals Served In Elegant Settings.

Women Love Working Together. That's My Experience Anyway.

Working Together

I Live In Too Many Cities.

I Thought Playing An Angel Would Be Very Good For My Image.

You Have To Surrender To The Energy Above And Below.

Above And Below

When You Walk 10 Hours, 11 Hours A Day By Yourself, You Are Doing A Walking Meditation.

Walking Meditation

When You Look Back... On Your Love Affairs... What You Really Find Out Is That The Only Person You Really Go To Bed With Is Yourself.

Aging People Are Underserved In This Culture - Big Time. I Want To Stay Healthy So I Can Serve That Community And Be A Voice.

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