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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fear had a tendency to drive away the courtesy of civilization.

Let me be of service to all living beings. Let me be in faith that all my needs are taken care of.

You never require a teacher to lead you into the wrong path, but you do require a kindly word to conduct you aright.

In the midst of our applauding the feats of civilization, the Bible flings itself like a knife slashing our complacency; remind us that God, too, has a voice in history.

Every state protects the privileges of the powerful.

I'm shocked at how much I'm into Christmas pillows. There's cheesiness, obviously, but then there's really cute ones that are metallic that say "Ho Ho Ho" or "Merry" or cute vintage needlepoint ones.

A woman who is not quite a fool will forgive your being but a man, if you are surely that. . .

Most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe. Every newspaper in the land has a section on astrology, yet few have anything at all on astronomy.

Money makes the world go round.

I'm sorry to keep focusing on the New Yorker, but everybody who was growing up when Calvin [Trillin] and I were growing up wanted to be published in the New Yorker.