Cybill Shepherd quotes: on hooking up with Elvis, the two things that saved her life, modeling, acting, and more.
“We have to keep trying things we’re not sure we can pull off. If we just do the things we know we can do… you don’t grow as much. You gotta take those chances on making those big mistakes.”
“I’ve got to take chances and get out there. What are you going to do, sit home and knit? I don’t knit.”
“You don’t suddenly become perfect. But we change. We grow and need different things.”
“It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong – but that is the way to bet.”
“If people fail you, you’re the one that’s got to repeat the year.”
“I’ll always push the envelope. To me, the ultimate sin in life is to be boring. I don’t play it safe.”
“Two things have always saved my life: reading and singing. Books and music have comforted me, informed me, helped me define myself. It’s impossible to overstate their importance to my mental health, spiritual sustenance and survival on the planet.”
“Some people say I’m attractive. I say I agree.”
“I had the serendipity of modeling during a temporary interlude between Twiggy and Kate Moss, when it was actually okay for women to look as if we ate and enjoyed life.”
“Modeling was a way to make a living. It put me nearer to my goal of that time, which was to live and study art in Florence, Italy. I started at the top in this business and have been working my way down ever since.”
“I’ve never had a problem standing up for myself but it was like what Bette Davis said, ‘And man does that and he’s admired, a woman does that and she’s a b*tch.'”
“When someone is beautiful, that gives people an excuse to go out of their way to be mean, as if someone who’s beautiful isn’t really deep, doesn’t really hurt and isn’t really a human being.”
“I knew I had talent, but I just had to prove it to the world, I guess.”
“It’s really self-knowledge. I don’t think I figured out anything until after 40. I really don’t. This has to be the best time because you just really know yourself. You make the same old mistakes. Suddenly, for me, I got far more particular. I figured out really what I wanted and for the first time in my life was prepared to wait for it.”
“My age is the best time there is to be a woman. It used to be middle-aged woman simply vanished. Look at me. I’m a spokesperson for a hair care product. I’m less of a sexual object. It’s kind of a relief not to be recognized just for my sexuality and beauty.”
“I know enough about myself to enjoy life. And I do enjoy it. It’s so divine. I love it – being in the middle of my life.”
“I’m not lost, I’m just in between places I recognize.”
“I was born and bred to be a great flirt.”
“I had a great fear as I grew older that I would not be valued anymore, that I would be like a beautiful old shoe that was all wrinkled and nobody wanted to wear it anymore.”
“One of my mottos is flaunt what you’ve got left.”
“I think the measure of your success to a certain extent will be the amount of things written about you that aren’t true.”
“The bad times, when I was afraid to be myself, are behind me. I am strong-willed. I am stubborn. I will never again give up my belief in myself. I absolutely deserve all this.”
“Interviews are like therapy. The only thing is, you don’t get the same kind of feedback. But it’s cheaper. I’ve chosen this field where I make money by people knowing about me. I feel obligated to do interviews. I just don’t go into details.”
“Elvis Presley, as a lover, was indescribable. I felt a lot for him. I felt a lot for him. I knew about his drug addiction. I knew his tragic side, and I wish I could have been a better friend to him. Today, I don’t want any useless drama or needless suffering in my life. That’s my main goal.”
“The funny thing about fame is that you’re never really a famous person. It’s like you get famous, and you’re like a wick – you have this wick that you stick in this bottle of red oil, and the wick turns red very quickly, and you’re famous all of a sudden, and then after a while the wick dries out. And it’s like you were never famous. It happens very quickly. I saw it happen.”
“I’ve worked hard and I deserve the credit.”
“I think one of the greatest things is that I’ve had it, I’ve lost it, and I’ve got it again.”
“My home is different from my mother’s, because hers is filled with beautiful objects that I was always afraid of breaking. My home is the opposite. Bring on the kids, the dogs, the parties – there’s nothing that’s so important it can’t be broken.”
“I know you are going to be embarrassed. We’re all embarrassed by it, but to hide the embarrassment… silence has never protected women or helped them. We need to talk about it more with our, you know – whoever – our friends, our family.”
“We are all benefiting from the great feminists who struggled and suffered and worked to give us everything women now enjoy. I refer to myself as a feminist, and I do it with pride.”
“No man bosses me around, and no man ever will.”
“I’m a child of the ’60s, with the bra-burning and the pill, so we never fell for all my mother’s ideas of being ladylike. Plus, you always want to be the opposite of one’s mother. I wanted to have a good time, to be free, and fulfilled in a way that women of her generation weren’t. I was quite wild, but it turns out, in retrospect, I had it all.”
Related: Jodie Foster quotes.
