Oscar Levant Quotes

I've stepped on too many toes on the way down.

[Madame Nhu was] the Sandra Dee of South Vietnam. If I were cast on a desert island with her, I would quickly make friends with the natives.

A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it.

Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her.

Once Dwight Eisenhower makes up his mind, he's full of indecision.

Ballet is the fairies baseball.

I never watch the Dinah Shore show- I'm a diabetic.

George, if you had to do it all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?

I never read bad reviews about myself, because my friends invariably tell me about them.

My last picture for Warners was Romance on the High Seas. It was Doris Day's first picture; that was before she became a virgin.

There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side.

When I can't sleep, I read a book by Steve Allen.

Talent's like a baby. Wrap it up in wool and it goes to sleep.

On Ira Gershwin:
I remember when he was given the manuscript of a novel written by a woman friend who had hopes of having it published. To his astonishment it turned out to be the dirtiest, most pornographic book he had ever read. When the lady mentioned that she intended to use a nom de plume, Ira suggested she call herself Henrietta Miller.

Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.

I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients.

It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts.

A conductor should reconcile himself to the realization that regardless of his approach or temperament the eventual result is the same-the orchestra will hate him.

I don't like to play the piano. It makes me too attractive.

Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath.

I have no trouble with y enemies. But my god damn friends ... they are the ones that keep me walking the floors at night.

Happiness isn't something you experience, it's something you remember.

It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view.

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.

I'm a study of a man in chaos in search of frenzy.

Once he makes up his mind, he's full of indecision. - On Dwight D. Eisenhower

I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on.

I'm a concert pianist, that's a pretentious way of saying I'm unemployed at the moment.

Debbie Reynolds is as wistful as an iron foundry.

I'm a self-made man. Who else would help?

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.