- I was street-smart, but unfortunately the street was Rodeo Drive.
- I have no ambitions as an actress. I'm going to do a day's work on Scream 3 (2000), but that's all I can handle, a day's work.
- [on her father's gossipy 1999 autobiography] I'm going to have my DNA fumigated.
- I always wanted to do what my mother did-- get all dressed up, shoot people, fall in the mud. I never considered anything else.
- You can't find true affection in Hollywood because everyone does the fake affection so well.
- Females get hired along procreative lines. After 40, we're kind of cooked.
- [on merchandising for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)] I signed my likeness away. Every time I look in the mirror, I have to send [George Lucas] a couple of bucks.
- My father [Eddie Fisher] was a short Jewish man. My husband [Paul Simon] was a short Jewish man. Go figure.
- [on working with Harrison Ford on Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)] [Mark Hamill] was 24, I was 19 and he [Harrison] was 33. He was like the big man on campus. You looked at him and you said to yourself, "He's going to be a star".
- [on why gaffer's tape was sometimes used under her Princess Leia costume in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)] As we all know, there is no underwear in space.
- Acting engenders and harbors qualities that are best left way behind in adolescence. People-pleasing, going on those interviews and jamming your whole personality into getting the job, ingratiating yourself to people you wouldn't fucking spit on if they were on fire.
- [about the filming of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)] [Mark Hamill'] was off on Dagobah while [Harrison Ford] and I were were getting drunk in Cloud City.
- I was born into big celebrity. It could only diminish.
- Leia is not a real character. She is more of a caricature, and is somewhat one-dimensional. It's not really possible to write out a list of Princess Leia's likes and dislikes. I do know her favorite color, though, it's white. She wears white all the time. But that doesn't help me much.
- I've got a lot of photos of me when I was very young at parties with celebrities, but I don't really remember the people or when the photos were taken.
- I think of my body as a side effect of my mind.
- [on success] There is no point at which you can say, "Well, I'm successful now. I might as well take a nap".
- [on time] Instant gratification takes too long.
- [on experience] Maturity: A stoic response to endless reality.
- [on the cultural significance of her parents, [Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds] I don't know if they were culturally significant, but they were very popular. My mother and my father were America's sweethearts. They literally received that tag. Even my parents sort of went along with the assumption that they were a good couple, but they probably weren't a very good couple. Anyway, my father was best friends with a man named Mike Todd. Mike Todd was married to Elizabeth Taylor. Mike Todd died in a plane crash, and my father consoled Elizabeth Taylor with his penis.
- [asked if the character Princess Leia was the dark side of the force in her professional career] Oh, no. It was fun! I was young. People want it to be a problem for me. No. Those are great movies. Why shouldn't I be proud of being in that? The dark side? You ever see Hollywood Vice Squad (1986) or The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)? How about Under the Rainbow (1981)? Was Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) the dark side? There's so much competition for that one.
- [on the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney] I'm now a Disney Princess!
- [why Princess Leia never got her own light saber] Even in space, there's a double standard.
- [on her relationship with ex-husband Paul Simon] I'm not as cooperative as you might want a woman to be . . . Every man, I think, or at least the ones I end up finding, there's no such thing as a consort. All men are kings. That was my little discovery in the process . . . I really thought men's fantasy is to have an intellectual geisha. So what I did was I learned to cook and I took a massage course. But that's not all of it. You have to also agree.
- [on her role as Princess Leia] I got to be the only girl in an all-boy fantasy, and it's a great role for women. She's a very proactive character and gets the job done. So if you're going to get typecast as something, that might as well be it for me.
- The father who flipped out about it [Lei's metal bikini in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)], "What am I going to tell my kid about why she's in that outfit?" Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn't like it. And then I took it off. Backstage.
- [2008, in "Wishful Drinking"] Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
- [about shooting Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)] George Lucas up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, "You can't wear a bra under that dress." So, I say, "Okay, I'll bite. Why?" And he says, "Because . . . there's no underwear in space." What happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands? But your bra doesn't--so you get strangled by your own bra. Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit--so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.
- [on being asked to lose weight for a part] They always do [ask me]. They want to hire part of me, not all of me. They want to hire about three-fourths, so I have to get rid of the fourth somehow. The fourth can't be with me. I made a joke!"
- [on being the daughter of a Jewish father and Protestant mother] I always felt the Jewish part more. In fact, growing up I felt like a Jew among WASPs.
- I think I am Princess Leia; Princess Leia is me. It's like a Möbius strip tease.
- If my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable.
- [in "People Magazine" in 1987, on her drug problems] I couldn't stop, or stay stopped. It was never my fantasy to have a drug problem. I'd say, "Oh, fuck it, I haven't done anything for a couple of months, why not? Let's celebrate not doing them by doing them". I got into trouble each time. I hated myself. I just beat myself up. It was very painful.
- Don't slide through life. Savor it. Slow down. Be kind. Pay attention. Because this isn't going to happen again.
- If there's a choice between companionship and anything else - especially career - choose companionship. It's the only thing that has the potential to last. Choose career and you'll spend unreasonable amounts of time attempting to look younger than you are and feeling you aren't succeeding.
- We treat beauty like an accomplishment, and that is insane. Everyone in L.A. says, 'Oh you look good,' and you listen for them to say you've lost weight. It's never 'How are you?' or 'You seem happy!
- [on the metal bikini she wore in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)] It was like steel, not steel, but hard plastic, and if you stood behind me you could see straight to Florida. You'll have to ask Boba Fett about that.
- The only reason to go into acting is if you can kill a giant monster.
- [on meeting Richard Nixon] My mother's fault. I said to her, 'I will not go. I want him impeached.' She said, 'I will take away your credit cards.' I said, 'I'm coming'.
- [on the next 'Star Wars' film, after Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) finished filming (which will sadly not happen)]: I'd better be at the forefront of Episode IX!
- [on the order the Star Wars films should be watched] Watch the ones that I'm in and then you can do what you want.
- [about getting in shape for new roles as an older actress] ...the tremendous difficulty getting myself down to a weight that's acceptable to some 35 year old studio executive whose deepest fantasy and worst nightmare somehow both involve me in a gold bikini.
- Nothing is ever really over...just over there.
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