Shirley MacLaine Examines the Big "What If"
CUMO: How much perspective you put into one place. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Shirley MacLaine, who needs an introduction? Come on. She's won an Oscar, multiple Golden Globes, an Emmy among other honors. She's also a prolific author. Her 14th book has just been published. It's called "What If: a Lifetime of Questions, Speculations, Reasonable Guesses and a Few Things I Know For Sure". Shirley MacLaine -- what an honor to have you here at "</s>NEW DAY". SHIRLEY MACLAINE, ACTRESS/AUTHOR: Thank you, Chris.</s>BOLDUAN: Thank you. Thank you for coming in.</s>MACLAINE: You guys are good. Love your new set.</s>CUOMO: Thank you very much. Now it is complete. So this book is important to you. You believe it benefits from your perspective. You know, you feel that the questions you've come up with now, they're better questions, they mean more now. Tell us about it.</s>MACLAINE: Let's see, now. With the world in the state it's in, and you know, I've been aware of that for some time, I thought I would take a little experiment and see what it would be like to sit and basically I would have to say channel my questions. You know, some great authors have told me in my conversations with them that they don't write their books. Something else writes their books -- and I tell (ph) them -- that's up my alley. So I want to know what does that mean. And that's what I did. Last year I sat down and I said, 'OK, just whoever you are and whatever you are, I want you to write, use me.' That's what I did.</s>PEREIRA: So it's sort a stream of consciousness. If you open the book, each page sometimes it's multi-pages, asking a question "What if", correct? So did they come to you? Did you sort of hear them in your head, hear them in your gut, hear them in your heart?</s>MACLAINE: Heard them in my heart. Would love to know myself, honestly, where they came from. I think they're good questions. I think they're relevant. I was surprised how they came out.</s>PEREIRA: Very.</s>MACLAINE: And I let it happen. It's such an experience to sit there and not do it yourself. Just let the questions reveal. And I don't know where it came from.</s>BOLDUAN: Did you get any answers after all of these questions that you ask in the book?</s>MACLAINE: Not really.</s>CUOMO: Well, I think that's part of the deal.</s>BOLDUAN: That's the point, right?</s>MACLAINE: Right.</s>CUOMO: It's part of the deal, yes. But I mean look, we're in the interview business, so it's always about the art of the question and why do you want the right question? Because you believe that it's going to lead to more thought, the question itself. And that's what you believe as well, right? That often questions lead to more questions but more productive thoughts --</s>MACLAINE: Right. That's all questions are for, spring boards for more questions. I don't even think I'm interested in the answers, to tell you the truth. I'm more interested in questions and the circumference of what that means because each question has a huge implication to it.</s>PEREIRA: Has it always been that way? Would you say that in your 20s or 30s --</s>MACLAINE: Absolutely.</s>PEREIRA: -- you wanted answers for things?</s>MACLAINE: No, since I'm 10.</s>PEREIRA: Really.</s>MACLAINE: I've been a mystic since I was 10. I really am.</s>BOLDUAN: What's the reaction to the book so far?</s>MACLAINE: People are entertained by it. I don't know what that means.</s>BOLDUAN: You've been -- you've been good at doing that for years now -- entertaining and getting people together (ph).</s>MACLAINE: I think the thing I'm most interested in with me and all the things that interest me is how I've navigated the last 14 books. I didn't even remember it was 14. But how I -- I don't think people are asking, "Oh, God, she's wacky" anymore. I think they're beginning to see, 'Well, yes, there could be something through this.' How can you go through what we're going through in this world, economically, weather-wise , everything, without asking some of these questions?</s>CUOMO: I love this.</s>BOLDUAN: Where do you get the energy to write all of these books?</s>MACLAINE: I told you, I'm not writing them. Plenty of energy.</s>CUOMO: She's got the universe of spirituality funneling through her. What if ignorance of the truth of the root of all evil? I believe that that question deserved more prominence in the book.</s>MACLAINE: A bigger page.</s>CUOMO: Yes. You know what I mean? I think that --</s>PEREIRA: You think it speaks loudly --</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>PEREIRA: That it's the only question right there.</s>MACLAINE: No, but here's -- here is the question. Define ignorance.</s>CUOMO: You're looking at it Shirley.</s>MACLAINE: And then define truth.</s>CUOMO: Right in the face. I'm the face of it all too often because so often we realize that there's so much more that we don't know than we do, including why Shirley MacLaine really wanted to write this book and do it now. But if you stick around with us after the break, you will hear us ask that question and it will lead to many, many more. Stay with us.