My role models were Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt, and my major crush was J. Edgar Hoover.
— Shirley Temple
I hate that song 'Mr. Bojangles.' It drives me up the wall, since it's not about him at all. He was never a bum in jail.
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 loved what I did. I remember cruel mothers who would pinch their children to make them cry in a scene, but my mother encircled me with affection.
The idea of being with my peers at a real school seemed much more exciting than making movies.
I've been blessed with three wonderful careers: motion pictures and television, wife, mother and grandmother... and diplomatic services for the United States government.
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.'
There's nothing like real love. Nothing.
Politicians are actors, too, don't you think? Usually, if you like people and you're outgoing, not a shy little thing, you can do pretty well in politics.
Long ago, I became more interested in the real world than in make-believe.
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.
Dr. Kissinger was a former child. Jerry Ford was a former child. Even F.D.R. was a former child. I retired from the movies in 1949, and I'm still a former child.
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.
Shirley Temple opens doors for Shirley Temple Black.
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.
The U.N. acts as the world's conscience, and over eighty-five percent of the work that is done by the United Nations is in the social, economic, educational and cultural fields.
When I was 14, I was the oldest I ever was. I've been getting younger ever since.
I had had enough pretend. I wanted to be in the real world.
I did an imitation of him to make the crew laugh. To my shock, there was Cary Grant behind me. He got very angry. I was sent all the way from RKO to David Selznick's office and was told not to do it anymore. I thought to myself, 'I must have been pretty good to make him that angry.'
I was absolutely bathed in love. I was so young, starting at age 3, that working seemed very normal. I thought everybody went to work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Many people consider me an old friend.
I've led three lives: the acting part, wife and mother - which is a career - and international relations. I'm proud of my career, the first one, and I'm proud of the other two, too.
By the time I got to the Fox studio for my first major film, I knew how to hit a mark. I knew how to memorize lines. I knew how to pay attention.
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.
Most of the people in Ghana wouldn't know me as an actress. They'd know me for my work at the U.N.
Nothing crushes freedom as substantially as a tank.
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.
Good luck needs no explanation.
We would have to invent the U.N. if we did not have it, which is not an original thought.
I wanted to be in the FBI. I also wanted to be a pie salesman.
I wish my name was Cobb. Then they would send over a Cobb salad.
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?
Biographies of me have usually been compiled from old newspaper clips, untruthful publicity stories, and reminiscences of people who claim to have known me well.
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.'
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 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.
I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award: Start early!
Time is money. Wasted time means wasted money means trouble.
I've always been bossy.
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.
There are many of us who should be in a position to bring peace to the world.
I have always told anyone who would listen that I was available for more public service.
Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.
I work a seventeen hour day, and I'm personally responsible for 108 staff members in the embassy.
I ran for Congress, just once.
