"I'm sure my mother thought she was working to my best interests in quiding my career.  However, I think if my father had lived, my life would have turned out differnetly.  I always listened to Mama and did everything she wanted.  Looking back, I wish I hadn't always looked to her for approval."

"The one thing I missed was never having children. It just wasn't in the cards, I guess.  (1948)

"My first picture was The Love Parade with the great Ernst Lubitsch directing...I remember how frightened I was in the beginning. Why, during my whole first film, my knees never stopped shaking. (1934)

"It was the scene towards the beginning of the story, when I looked though my telescope up to the "Joie des Anges" mast, searching for the handsome captian I'd met briefly.  Well, good old Nelson, He'd riggered it so he was waiting for me, making faces of course.  Of course I laughed, and then I tossed my hat up to him, proclaiming, "There! And that's all your going to get out of me today!".  He loved it!  Don't let anyone tell you Nelson's not a ham.  He loves plotting and planning gags like this." (1955 on New Moon)

"There was too much silliness in it" (1959 on I Married An Angel)

"He is always "measuring" my nose and generally embarrising me with his scrutiny, but will not (to this date, at least) show me the bust he is sculpturing of me. "You won't like it at this point," he says, with a madding air of masculine superiority.  How does he know know I won't like it? (1942 on Nelson Eddy)

"I loved singing with Jeanette.  Those damn fools expected a grand diva rendition of Juliette.  Jeanette sang her role as though she were fourteen years old entranced by love!  As to her voice being thin and small I say bunk!  It was beauty to the ear and to the eye an enchanting Performance!"  -Ezio Pinza on Jeanette.

"I have thought, since my tours that we in Hollywood run a great danger of becoming too insular.  I know I was near it when I left.  Hollywood is such a tight unit in the American scene that a Hollywoodite's map of her world is apt to show one large eastern seaboard area labeled "New York" and one west coast section labeled "Hollywood". There are a few pin dots scattered over the map reading, "Sun Valley," "Palm Springs," "Miami Beach," "Bermuda."  The space between is arid waste.  There are no dots reading "Cincinnati," "Sioux City,"  "Augusta." "Spokane." (September 1947)

"I've been told I have an Irish temper, I know I have Scottish thrift, and, like the English, I love a good show."
-Jeanette MacDonald

"I can't believe how blessed I am! I'm married to the most wonderful man, Gene Raymond, whom I'm deeply in love with, and, my career is right where I want it to be. I can live like this forever!" (1943)
-Jeanette MacDonald

"No one outside of heaven sings more like an angel than Jeanette.  Her tonal quality hits on you a level far avove the aesthetic plane.  Besides, when she looks at you in one of those duets, who's singing?"
-Nelson Eddy on Jeanette's voice

"I have no inhibitions about smoking or drinking, but I think too much of my voice to place it in jeopardy. I have spent many good years in training and cultivating it, and I would be foolish to do anything which might impair or ruin it."
-Jeanette MacDonald

"Certain things offend me. Bawdy stories that have no point, familiarities from casual acquaintances. I don' pretend to dislike them in order to set myself up as a holierthanthou. I just don't like them. And why should I make believe that I do, just for the sake of having someone I don't care a whoop about call me a good sport? That's cowardice."
-Jeanette Macdonald

"You realize, monsieur, that I am not in love with you, that I have no intention of falling in love with you, and if I should through some unpredictable curse happen to fall in love with you, I'd run to the nearest cliff and jump off!"
-Marienne (New Moon- Jeanette MacDonald)

"The censors really can't do much about Chevalier. After all, there's no rule against a man having a naughty twinkle in his eyes, or seeming to have naughty thoughts, is there? Well, then....If you having a burning desire to BE something, DO something! "
-Jeanette MacDonald

Marianne:...I shall pay you back with Interest!
Richard:  I am full of Interest <puts her hand on his arm> Right now!
(Naughty Marietta-Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy)

Ramerez: I hope I'll see you again sometime. Yeah?
Mary Robbins: I hope I'll see you again sometime too. Dangling on the end of a rope!
(Girl of the Golden West-Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald)

Ramerez:  All tonight I shall be saying "Tomorrow"
Mary:  And all tomorrow I shall be saying "Tonight."
(Girl of the Golden West-Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald

Marianne: Shall I cook, or do you prefer, I milk a goat?
Charles : Try cooking! Men are more lenient than goats!
(New Moon-Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald)

Why am I always awakened from my dreams?
-Queen Louise (Love Parade-Jeanette MacDonald)

Kenneth: There's only one thing missing from this picnic. Don't you have any ants in England?
Kathleen: I have some in Ireland, but I never hear from them.
(Smilin' Though-Gene Raymond and Jeanette MacDonald)