I think it's so funny when people think they can't control a movie star. They can. We're just women, you know

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

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.

The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.

Everything about my teenage life was almost ideal.

The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.

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.