# Michelle Phillips

Michelle Phillips (born June 4, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress, best known as a vocalist of the group the Mamas & the Papas.

## Quotes

* I didn’t feel comfortable with American children. I certainly knew more about sex and drugs by the time I was eleven than they would ever know. My father used to ask me when I was thirteen if I needed a diaphragm. I said, ‘No, Dad, really, I’m still a virgin.’ He said, ‘you let me know when you’re not.'
** On returning to California after having spent her early childhood in Mexico City, Rolling Stone no. 259 (February 23, 1978)
* I like what’s happening to me now in every way. When you’re twenty, you handle it a lot differently than when you’re thirty—and I’m thirty-three. I was naïve enough to think it would be easy to get here. It wasn’t.
** On maturing, Rolling Stone no. 259 (February 23, 1978)
* I don't consider psychedelics hard drugs, [but] I also don't recommend that people take [them]. I think it's something that you either did in the sixties, or you just forget about it.
** On drug use, Regis Philbin's Lifestyles (1986)
* Cass gained a lot of strength from her public. Once she was a star, she wasn't afraid of anybody, and certainly not me.
** On Cass Elliot, Regis Philbin's Lifestyles (1986)
* I was raised to be very independent. I was raised to believe I could do anything I wanted with my life. My father said I was lucky to be born a woman because "women can do anything they want" with their lives. Of course, I didn't realize until later that my father was giving me a slightly unrealistic view, but I think that [it] gave me a lot of confidence.
** On her upbringing, The Arsenio Hall Show (1991)
* I've always had a reputation as the pretty girl. Pretty girls rarely get the good parts. We all have to do a film like The Burning Bed where we can really be degraded so that people think we can act.
** The Chicago Tribune (July 5, 1986)
* We toured in a Lear jet and that's the only way to fly, baby! Success is a bubble, though, and we knew the wonderful time we were having couldn't possibly last.
** On the success of the Mamas & the Papas, The National (January 5, 2011)
* People assume that there must have been tension between us, but the truth is I wanted to be just like Cass. Cass liberated me; she stopped John [Phillips] trying to have too much control over me. She taught me a lot about feminism, and she always encouraged me, although I was obviously inferior to her as a singer.
** On her relationship with Cass Elliot, The National (January 5, 2011)
* I was so lucky to have been surrounded by really great actors. Everybody in that movie was a real actor: Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Richard Dreyfuss, Harry Dean Stanton. It was just a wonderful, wonderful experience for me and I had so much support and so much help and so much encouragement.
** On her first acting role in Dillinger (1973), The Huffington Post (August 25, 2016)
* I would not let her work until she was eighteen, and believe me, since the time she was being strolled down the street in her stroller, people were saying, “Can I use her in my commercial? Can I put her in my movie?” “No!” But I did let her take any class that she wanted to take. Singing, acting, dancing...
** On raising her daughter, Chynna Philips, The Huffington Post (August 25, 2016)

## See also

* The Mamas & the Papas

## External links

Encyclopedic article on Michelle Phillips on Wikipedia
* Michelle Phillips at the Notable Names Database