Quotes from Shirley Temple

I ran for Congress, just once.

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.'

By the time I was 4, I knew how to hit my mark.

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.

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.

Don't forget to tell your favorite people that you love them.

There's nothing like real love. Nothing.

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.

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.

You've got to S-M-I-L-E To be H-A-Double-P-Y

My Chicken can do a special trick! "And what is that?" She can lay an egg! "And what's so special about THAT?!" Well, Can YOU lay an egg?

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.

Studio chief Winfield Sheehan wanted me to remain a little girl. If I lost my innocence, he said, it would show in my eyes.

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.

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.

When I was 14, I was the oldest I ever was. I've been getting younger ever since.

I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award: Start early!

My role models were Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt, and my major crush was J. Edgar Hoover.

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.

Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.

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.

Many people consider me an old friend.

I liked work shoes and big, working-class hands. The stars would come and go, but the crew on my movies was my extended family.