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.

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.

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

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.

A degree helps to a degree, but your work is largely what you create it to be.

I've always wanted to be somebody but I see now I should have been more specific.

Great leaders inspire, they don't manipulate.

Spiritual growth-looking inward-is replacing the pursuit of external power-reaching outward to manipulate and control-as the cure for the insecurity at the core of human experience.

Though the hen should sit all day, she could lay only one egg, and, besides, would not have picked up materials for another.

I'm writing this book because we're all going to die.

You are the soul that fits into mine

The more you touch something, the stronger it becomes.

People dance at any age.

Everyone's a different person when they're younger. You evolve as a human being with knowledge and attitude and challenges and obstacles in life.