Debbie Reynolds Quotes

These are my recollections. If you remember things differently, send me your version—but only if it’s funnier.

There’s no room for demons when you’re self possessed.

The common theory about Mom’s passing was that, after losing Carrie, Debbie Reynolds died of a broken heart. Take it from the son who was there, who knew her better than anyone else on earth—that’s simply not true. Debbie Reynolds willed herself right off this planet to personally see to it that Carrie would never be alone.

It’s not natural to outlive your child. This has always been my greatest fear.

Carrie is my child, and I love her with every ounce of strength I possess. If love alone could cure our children, they would always be well.

See that girl just ahead of us? With that headband?” “Yeah?” “She’s Debbie Reynolds’s daughter.” There was a slight pause before she added, “She thinks she’s so great.” Wow, right? Uncanny how she so perfectly nailed me straight out of the box. I just thought I was incredible.

I was no good at all at the jitterbug, as I have just now demonstrated, but then this other song came on, a song from a movie. . . . “Tammy.” About a girl falling in love. I haven’t thought of that song for years. Debbie Reynolds sang it, in a voice that would put you in mind of maple syrup.

The only way you make it through life is to fight. You don't get there the easy way. If you feel sorry for yourself, and you let yourself go down, you will drown.

Pero quiere la maldita Cantando bajo la lluvia terminar con Gene Kelly diciéndole a Debbie Reynolds que ella es su buena estrella, y que la vio de lejos con sus hermosos ojos brillantes, y que le abrió las puertas del cielo, y ella le contesta que él la hechizó y no sé qué más, porque no soy capaz de contenerme y me giro hacia Manuel y él me hace un gesto de "Lo lamento pero las cosas son exactamente así".

It's not natural to outlive your child. This has always been my greatest fear.

In Singin’ in the Rain, Lina Lamont provides both an effective “beard” for Don and Cosmo and a foil, representing both the reason for Don’s “unattached” state and the basis for their mutual contempt for women. Yet the signs are all there to be read for those interested in reading them: Cosmo and Don performing as a burlesque team, in which they sit on each other’s laps and play each other’s violins; Cosmo’s comment to Lina after the premiere of The Royal Rascal, “Yeah, Lina, you looked pretty good for a girl”;30 and their bullying, in “Moses Supposes,” of the fogyish diction coach, figuratively drawn out of his closet only to be ridiculed as an asexual “pansy” who can’t sing and dance (thus both confirming and denying homosexuality at the same time).31 On a broader scale, Kelly’s career as a dancer, offering a more masculinized style of athletic dance (in opposition especially to the stylized grace of Fred Astaire), represented a similar balancing act between, in this case, the feminized occupation of balletic dance and a strong claim of heterosexual masculinity. Significantly, the process of exclusion they use with the diction coach is precisely what Cosmo proposes they apply to Lina in converting The Dueling Cavalier into a musical: “It’s easy to work the numbers. All you have to do is dance around Lina and teach her how to take a bow.” But they also apply the strategy to Kathy, who is only just learning to “dance” in this sense (conveniently so, since Debbie Reynolds had had but little dance training, as noted).32 Early on, we see her dance competently in “All I Do Is Dream of You,” but she then seems extremely tentative in “You Were Meant for Me,” immobile for much of the number, not joining in the singing, and dancing only as Don draws her in (which is, of course, consistent with her character’s development at this point). With “Good Mornin’,” though, she seems to “arrive” as part of the Don-Cosmo team, even though for part of the number she serves as a kind of mannequin—much like the voice teacher in “Moses Supposes,” except that she sings the song proper while Don and Cosmo “improvise” tongue-twisting elaborations between the lines. As the number evolves, their emerging positions within the group become clear. Thus, during their solo clownish dance bits, using their raincoats as props, Kathy and Don present themselves as fetishized love objects, Kathy as an “Island girl” and Don as a matador, while Cosmo dances with a “dummy,” recalling his earlier solo turn in “Make ’em Laugh.

At my age, a surprise can be hazardous to your health.

The vocal credits for Singin’ in the Rain are interesting, and rather confusing. In the film, Debbie Reynolds has been hired to re-dub [Jean Hagen]’s dialogue and songs in the latter’s first talking picture. We see the process being done in a shot of Reynolds, back to camera, matching her dialogue to Jean’s and synchronizing it while watching the sequence on film. But the voice that is used to replace Jean’s dialogue is not Reynolds’, but Jean’s own quite lovely natural voice. Director Stanley Donen explained, in Hugh Fordin’s The World of Entertainment: “We used Jean Hagen dubbing Debbie dubbing Jean. Jean’s voice is quite remarkable and it was supposed to be cultured speech, and Debbie had that terrible western noise.” To further confuse matters, the voice we hear as Jean sings “Would You?,” also supposedly supplied by Reynolds, is that of yet a third girl, unbilled studio singer Betty Noyes.

We're separated as of this moment. We separate about every moon phase. It hasn't been your everyday Debbie Reynolds romance.

On the Date with Debbie [Reynolds] television program in 1960, Charlie Ruggles, another veteran character actor used to playing grandfathers, asked Brennan in mock outrage, “How did you get to be the main grandfather?” Brennan did not answer the question, but instead told a joke about Martians who land in Hollywood: One Martian says, “First take me to Marilyn Monroe and then to your leader.” He enjoyed that kind of comic misdirection. He did not care to explain the reasons for his success—although he enjoyed that success mightily. He loved parades and loved serving as grand marshal, usually decking himself out in cowboy clothing, as he did on December 2, 1961, in the Bethlehem Star Parade that marched near his Northridge home.

Have you seen it...Singin' in the rain, have you seen it?" ...His answer was all in his face, scornful and baffled at once. Money makes me ask stupid questions. He wanted it, of course, because someone else didn't have it. "Debbie Reynolds dies in the end," I told him.

At the time Carrie was living at the edge but hadn’t yet begun to send any postcards.