Top 55 Quotes & Sayings by Maureen O'Hara

God has a most wicked sense of humor.

Charles Laughton signed me to my first movie contract at 17. He later asked my parents if he could adopt me.

There's a terrible truth for many women in the picture business: Aging typically takes its toll and means fewer and less desirable roles.

My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace.

How could you have had such a wonderful life as me if there wasn't a God directing?

Audiences in London called me the girl with the black cherry eyes.

As the 1960s began, a new breed of Hollywood leading lady was emerging. She was elegant, international, and wonderfully comedic.

I am like many of the women I have played onscreen.

I'm really honestly terrified about how much I should tell and how much I should still keep secret.

The Parent Trap gave my career another boost, starring in family comedies.

In the beginning it was all black and white.

How could you get angry with Jackie Gleason?

When I was young, I was told that I had a sulky, pouty face.

Henry Fonda gave me a spanking during a scene in Spencer's Mountain.

Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman.

I had always been a tomboy - I still am, at heart.

John Wayne was one of the greatest ambassadors for the United States that ever lived.

I have never lost my faith in God.

Some time ago, I told Larry King that I planned to live to be 102. I still do.

I was born into the most remarkable and eccentric family I could possibly have hoped for.

The Queen Mary was the most civilized and luxurious way one could travel to America in the late 1930s.

I knew that Jamaica Inn was going to make me a star.

I watch and listen to movies today and am shocked by the way actors deliver their lines. Everybody mumbles now and I don't understand why.

I didn't let anyone push me into things I didn't want to do where my career was concerned. So why did I crumble when it came to men?

I saw myself as Joan of Arc.

When How Green Was My Valley finally wrapped, I thought John Ford was a walking god.

John Candy knew he was going to die. He told me on his 40th birthday. He said, well, Maureen, I'm on borrowed time.

The depth of John Candy's talent did surprise me. He was one of my all-time favorite leading men.

I spent a great deal of time with Che Guevara while I was in Havana. I believe he was far less a mercenary than he was a freedom fighter.

My whole life was foretold to me. An old Romany gypsy read my fortune.

I'm terrified about the day that I enter the gates of heaven and God says to me, just a minute.

When you try to battle with John Ford, you have to give in.

Comedy is difficult, especially slapstick. The trick is to have fun while you are performing it.

After I got to Hollywood, I resented that I didn't get a crack at more dramatic roles because I photographed so beautifully.

I don't remember having a crush on a boy when I was a girl. I don't even remember my first kiss.

I really wanted to be an opera soprano.

I dainty little lass I wasn't. I looked twice my age until I turned 10 or 11.

Making movies is just like betting on horses at the racetrack.

The studio thought I was crazy to perform all of my own fencing stunts, but I loved it.

I grew up in the theater and danced ballet atrociously.

Every star has that certain something that stands out and compels us to notice them.

The Parent Trap wouldn't have been as special without the remarkable performances by Hayley Mills.

Lost in a crowd of greats, not a single Oscar. That's showbiz.

It turns out that our notions of what a 'self' is and how it might feel fulfilled have no more objective status than most of the rest of reality. It seems we make ourselves up as we go along.

Empathy provides more than just information about relationships. It is an expression of being in relationship. It is not just a means to better healing relationship, but because it recenters relationship as a central organizing feature of psychic life, empathy itself is healing. The experience of being known and accepted deeply by another, being aware of another being aware of you, what Jordan calls "mutual empathy".

I began to rationalize marrying Will [William Houston Price]. 'He comes from a good family. A girl could do worse.' (As it turned out, I couldn't, but I didn't know that yet.)

There is nothing worse than having your personal problems become somebody else's entertainment.

To be part of the creation, I must act humbly. I'll take that over a goddess any day!

John Wayne is not just an actor, and a very fine actor - John Wayne is the United States of America.

Working with Ty Power was exciting. In those days, he was the biggest romantic swashbuckler in the world. Murderously handsome! But what I loved most about Ty Power was his wicked sense of humor.

Being an Irishwoman means many things to me. An Irishwoman is strong and feisty. She has guts and stands up for what she believes in. She believes she is the best at whatever she does and proceeds through life with that knowledge. She can face any hazard that life throws her way and stay with it until she wins. She is loyal to her kinsmen and accepting of others. She's not above a sock in the jaw if you have it coming.

Speaking as an actress, I wish all actors would be more like Duke Wayne. And speaking as a person, it would be nice if all people could be honest and as genuine as he is. This is a real man.

A sense of belonging is a sine qua non of healthy psychological functioning everywhere. Such a sense, beginning in infancy and continuing throughout life, comes about by experiencing mutual empathy; by sensing oneself as part of a whole, which recognizes and accepts that one is a member.

In February 1953, I was making a second picture with Jeff Chandler, one called War Arrow. Jeff was a real sweetheart, but acting with him was like acting with a broomstick.

Comedy is quite difficult, you have to be able to have fun and portray that sense of fun to the audience watching you.