Quotes

Sometimes, you have to get to know someone really well to realize you're really strangers.

There is a dark side. I tend not to be as optimistic as Mary Richards. I have an anger in me that I carry from my childhood experiences -- I expect a lot of myself and I'm not too kind to myself.

Diabetes is an all-too-personal time bomb which can go off today, tomorrow, next year, or 10 years from now - a time bomb affecting millions like me and the children here today.

I'm not an actress who can create a character. I play me.

Diets are for those who are thick and tired of it.

There are certain things about me that I will never tell to anyone because I am a very private person. But basically what you see is who I am. I'm independent, I do like to be liked, I do look for the good side of life and people. I'm positive, I'm disciplined, I like my life in order, and I'm neat as a pin. I love order and discipline. God, I sound like a Nazi don't I?

Couldn't you just slap my face for being so positive and optimistic?

[on throwing her hat in the air for the title shots for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)] It was a hat that my aunt had given me for Christmas, and I brought it with me because they said: "Be sure and dress warm. It's going to be freezing in Minneapolis." So - I forget which writer it was - but we were all outside, and he said: "You know what would be good? If you take that hat, the beret, and throw it in the air.".

[when she was cast as the icy mother in Ordinary People (1980)] I was thinking of my own family history and how we missed the mark of being everything that I'm sure people thought I was. Because I had, though nothing that would raise your eyebrows. I had problems with my father, in that he expected more from me than I was able to give. I did not do well in school, and that was a big disappointment to him. On the other hand, we did our shows, both The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and mine, in front of audiences, and he and my mother would come to every show. And I could recognize my father's laugh.

[on her pit bull Spanky] He has, as with some dogs that have been written about, the ability to sense when things are off in their owners, their masters, whatever we're calling them in this day and age. He can tell when my blood sugar is dipping low.

I've been a diabetic for about 35 years now (as of 2012), and I'm one of the very lucky few who has managed to live that long without having major problems. I do have problems with my eyes, one eye in particular, and if I fall, I generally break a bone.

[being coy in a 1995 interview with Bryant Gumbel] I'm an actress! That's all I do. I don't know nothin' about runnin' no business!

[2009] When one looks at what's happened to television, there are so few shows that interest me. I do watch a lot of Fox News. I like Charles Krauthammer and Bill O'Reilly.

[on the the moment when she scattered her son's ashes] "It was a sunny day. The water was clear and high as I knelt over it. I opened the container and emptied it into the rushing water. What was meant to be a prayer became an outraged demand. 'You take care of him,' I screamed at the sky."

[on watching old episodes of her TV series when she was unable to sleep] "Without any trouble at all, I'll lose myself in the episodes. It's been so long I can hardly remember what the plots were, so it's almost fresh to me. They're always so wise. They have a lesson, small ones and happy ones. They give you hope that there's a better future."

I smoked three packs a day. There was hardly time to do anything else.