I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.

I remember when I first walked into Mayer's cavernous office. You had to walk 50 yards to get to him, and in that time he could really study everything about you.

I always felt that if I made a movie, it would be one movie; I didn't see how they could make 26 swimming movies.

Everything about my teenage life was almost ideal.

No one can avoid a challenge in life without breeding regret, and regret is the arsenic of life.

Clark Gable was the first to have called me a mermaid.

Howard Hughes himself was a regular at the restaurant, and in a way it became his headquarters, too. Howard had recently relocated to Las Vegas, so when he wanted to do business in Los Angeles, he went into the back of our restaurant to use the telephone.