Liza Minnelli Quotes

You have to work hard for it, but first you have to want it, and then you have to dream on it.

To the general public, show business may just mean the artistic part, but the dollar and cents element is the reality every performer has to face.

I thought that making movies was drab. I'd lived through that. And I didn't want to use my parents, ever ... They didn't want to push me into this business.

I worked very hard, but I think it's unfair to make it all sound like it's all David's fault.

I had the drink after I fell out of bed. It hurt.

I had no interest in filming. I sometimes went to the studios with my dad, but it was slow-going; it was boring to watch. I always ended up in the rehearsal hall watching the dancing. That's what I liked to do.

I have two false hips, a wired-up right knee, two crushed discs and scoliosis. If I don't dance, I seize up.

Half the time, I feel like I'm 12. And the rest of the time, I feel like I'm 80. So I guess I'm somewhere in between. No, I feel great. I've got my health, and that's the most important thing.

What I'm saying is that I tried very hard to give them my reality and my reality is kind of interesting.

(in the film "That's Entertainment!" - 1974) Thank God for film, it can capture a moment and hold it there forever. If anyone ever asks you: "Who were they?" or "What made them so good?" I think a reel of film answers that question.

(on Marilyn Monroe) I was walking down Broadway with her and nobody was stopping us. She was going to (Stella Adler's) actors' studio, and she was taking me to show me what it was all about. And I said to her: "How come nobody is taking your picture?" She said: "Well, watch." She took her scarf off, straightened her shoulders, and draped something another way, and we were surrounded. It must have been 400 people. And I said: "Now I know why!"

I am deeply saddened by the death of my dear friend, Dudley Moore.

You see, that's another thing that my parents gave me: an enormously great sense of humor.

Now, having had this experience, I can't say really what they were looking for. I don't know their minds. But every time I see a reality show, it seems that the most entertaining parts on other reality shows are when they make their guests look foolish.

I was sitting on my mom's lap across from my father to see Kay Thompson at Ciro's. And I always remember this energy force, this woman flying around the room and singing these harmonies so everyone went, 'Wow!' So I thought, 'That's what I want to do.'

He was doing - Ray was designing the clothes for my mom's show from California. And one of the first appearances I ever made on television was on my mother's show and Ray and Bob did the clothes for that. It has been a long time.

I thought maybe, just by never preaching, never doing any of that stuff because it doesn't work. By just maybe the power of example and some laughs, maybe somebody might go take a walk.

I'm fine, and my hips are fine. My false knee is fine. My false hips are fine. Everything's cooking.

The male gay community seems to be very into female singers. I think it could be the songs we sing. They're more open with their feelings. And they have good taste!

There are so many girls, and so few princes.

I feel like I haven't done my best work yet.

Initially, I wanted to be an ice skater, but then when I was 13 I saw Bye Bye Birdie, and that was it - I wanted to be on Broadway.

The thing is, is to raise your hand. It's not to hide, and it's not to try and pretend or do anything like that. You raise your hand, that's the best thing about it.

Maybe what a gay icon is, is a person who is rooted for - in other words, cheered on - by people who feel different.

I've got a good life, and I don't think anything can rock that anymore.

Whenever we were on a plane, we had a family.

No, I mean, I most certainly date and go out.

I've decided that I am totally against jewelry. So I have all fake. There's no reason to have real diamonds. People think it's real anyway.

First I wanted to be an ice skater, and then I saw 'Bye, Bye Birdie,' and everything changed. I'm glad I learned through the process of theater.

I'm always looking at the next thing. I'm too curious to look back ... it's very hard to be unhappy when you're curious and grateful. You're busy. You don't have time to be unhappy. My biggest talent is I know who is more talented than I am. I find them and I go to them, and I learn.

I consider myself an actress first, a dancer second, and a singer third. Why? Because the dancer needs a reason to move-that's the actor informing the dancer. So I worked on my acting and gradually developed a singing voice.

But I don't think there's any reason to get married again, especially after what I've been through.

I'm not a very good singer. I just know how to present a song, and honey, I think I've been through enough to do it right.

It was like Mama suddenly realized I was good, that she didn't have to apologize for me. It was the strangest feeling. One minute I was on stage with my mother, the next moment I was on stage with Judy Garland. One minute she smiled at me, and the next minute she was like the lioness that owned the stage and suddenly found somebody invading her territory. The killer instinct of a performer had come out in her.

Well, we have theatrical parties. It's not me singing. People like to get up and jam on the piano.

I had a one day slip, Matt. So what do you do? You get up and you go on, and you try not to do it again.

I think that's the greatest gift one can have: point of view. You know? I've come to believe that if you have a bad memory of something, change it.

I mean, I inherited the disease of alcoholism, and I learned early to get help when I needed it.

Ben Vereen is going to be on the show with me, too.

The regrets of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow can kill you.

Well, when I was growing up it was Ozzie and Harriet on TV - nobody's parents were like that.

And what I liked the most about any project was that when it was good, you had a bunch of people trying to accomplish something together who were all acting together as one - that's the most exciting time for me.

My family's been in show business since the 1700s. I traced them. I'm bred to this. Like a racehorse. A thoroughbred. Look at my parents, my God. But it was my curiosity that made me do this. Because you could also say: "Look at Frank Sinatra Jr." It's not like a natural thing that happens. You gotta work.

I believe all drunks go to heaven, because they've been through hell on Earth.

It was no great tragedy being Judy Garland's daughter. I had tremendously interesting childhood years - except they had little to do with being a child.

Audiences are the same all over the world, and if you entertain them, they'll respond.

I was given an enormous amount of love by my parents.

Dream on it. Let your mind take you to places you would like to go, and then think about it and plan it and celebrate the possibilities. And don't listen to anyone who doesn't know how to dream.

She raised us with humor, and she raised us to understand that not everything was going to be great-but how to laugh through it.

I walk fast. Keep moving. Always be a moving target. Marilyn Monroe taught me that.

If we had a hard time, my mother would sit me down and we would talk about it, and she kept talking and kept processing until we started to laugh about it.

It's a waste of time to think about what I should have done and what I didn't. I really believe in that. That's how I react to the if-onlys of life. To moan and groan about something I shouldn't have done, could have done, might have done ... who knows? It is what it is. You got what you got. I live my life one day at a time.

Nobody sang better than my mom. That's why I've never even thought of singing for singing sake. I've always thought of a song as an acting piece, as a way to say something.

In Hollywood now when people die they don't say, 'Did he leave a will?' but 'Did he leave a diary?'

Anything is possible in this world. I really believe that.

It's like being an athlete; you get into a certain shape where you really have the right wind, because it's all to do with breath. Because singing and dancing at the same time is not easy!

I rely on regular chiropractic care to keep in shape for my strenuous type of acting and singing.

But my brother Joey was there, and my sister Tina Nina Minnelli was there.