In Beautiful, Mr. Shearer writes with humor and has fun with some of the glorious nonsense of Lamarr's movies.

Magic in cinema is a bit like ventriloquism on the radio.

... in the movies Paris is designed as a backdrop for only three things--love, fashion shows, and revolution.

Loving and appreciative, researched to a fare-thee-well, and pitched to both fans and first-time viewers of Singin' in the Rain, this delightful book delivers almost as much fun as the film itself.

Everyone will tell you how rigid I am, but a teacher has to be flexible. You can't cut the student to your cloth; you have to cut yourself to theirs.

Movies with interfering in-laws and kids are often presented as comic, the ridicule bringing welcome relief to beleaguered married folks suffering offscreen at the hands of relatives.

Joanne Woodward’s Mrs. Bridge is one of the best performances ever given on film of a middle-aged woman.

Another superb movie about a mature marriage grounded in a fundamental lack of communication is Dodsworth, based on the Sinclair Lewis novel.

When it came to portraying couples who never directly connected, the Newmans were the Olympic gold champions

The story of a marriage was an excellent way to fulfill the goal of discussing class without discussing class, and to tell an audience that they were upwardly mobile.

The true marriage movie involving in-laws and children is a story about how marriage is directly affected by external characters who impact the central relationship in various ways.

Weakness is weaker when discovered by others.

People are so unnecessarily negative about envy. It really ought to be struck off the list of deadly sins.

My mother said "You won't amount to anything because you procrastinate." I said "Just wait."

It's better not to work than to work in something you don't want to be working in.

What is commonly called ugliness in nature can in art become full of beauty.

I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.

My counsel is, to force nothing, and rather to trifle and sleep away all unproductive days and hours, than on such days to compose something that will afterwards give no pleasure.

For me, Rama and Rahim are one and the same deity.

It would be a dream come true if I could just go from studio to studio and play solos.

I'm short, I'm Jewish and I'm a liberal