Whoopi Goldberg Quotes

I have witnessed things the ancients would have called miracles, but they are not miracles. They are the products of someone's dream, and they happen as the result of hard work.

What I am is a humanist before anything - before I'm a Jew, before I'm black, before I'm a woman. And my beliefs are for the human race - they don't exclude anyone.

You know, be an actor because you love to act. Don't be an actor because you think you're going to get famous, because that's luck.

Before you judge me, look in the mirror.

Things happen to you out of luck, and if you get to stick around it's because you're talented.

I won once [an Oscar]. So it can't be that racist.

Art is long, life is short.

I fear waking up one morning and finding out my life was all for nothing. We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark. When you're kind to someone in trouble, you hope they remember and are kind to someone else and so on. Soon it will be like a wildfire ...

Taking action is hard, but know what? Enduring a bad situation can be its own hell.

Remember what the fashion big mouths were saying about Jessica Simpson? Looking at her magazine pictures, sucking their teeth, going, "Oh, look at her in her 'mom jeans.'" Know what? That is an unnecessarily cheap shot at her and kinda lousy to moms at the same time. Who the hell are they to say that? What gratification does it give them to be mean at someone's expense?
People made nasty comments like that about President Obama. They made an issue of his jeans when he threw out the first ball at the All-Star game in St. Louis. Why? Who was he bothering? Come on.
The tabloids, celebrity mags, and TV entertainment shows do fashion critiques all the time. But it's not about fashion, it's about trashin'. Their specialty is "Celebrity Cellulite!"--running unflattering pictures of stars at the beach and saying who should give up the bikini and go for the one-piece. And this is acceptable? This is a mark of journalism in a civil society, to take ambush pictures of people at the beach? And if the camera was turned around and pointed the other way, what would that look like?

People have the power we give them. Words have the power we give them.

[On writing to Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple:] I told her I would play a Venetian blind, dirt on the floor, anything.

I'm as American as Chevrolet.

When I was 9 years old, Star Trek came on ...

If You don't like Gay Marriage, Don't Marry a Gay Person.

Her least favorite thing: VOLUNTARY IGNORANCE

I always wore sneakers when I wanted to. It was always about being comfortable and being myself.

Now, I've always known that there were bullies in the world. We've seen a lot of it in politics lately as well as in daily life. You see it where people who may be stronger, or bigger, or better with verbiage than other folks ... show off. To me, that's what bullying is, showing off. It's saying, I'm better than you, I can take you down. Not just physically, but emotionally.

[On her monologue as the thief 'Fontaine':] People always got things. People always want things. So I provide a service.

Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.

I grew up in a time when it would never have occurred to anyone to tell me there was anything I couldn't do.

I eat eight bags of chips in one sitting, and then nothing for a day or two. I learned that my body thought it was starving, so it would hold on to fat.

We are all here for a reason.I believe the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people thru the darkness.

The only argument you can make against having [Confederate] flag as spectacularly shown as it is around the south is the Nazis. I mean, it would be like having the swastika flag ...

If you're willing to stand for what you believe in ... you won't need advice from me, because you will be able to handle whatever comes.

If I was doing a talk show, I would do the kind of show that comes on just once a month, with amazing guests.

If you don't look out for others, who will look out for you?

It's being willing to walk away that gives you strength and power - if you're willing to accept the consequences of doing what you want to do.

There are roles I am never considered for. Meryl Streep roles, let's say. Why not? I really wanted to do 'Ironweed,' for example, because the depression era in this country was one of the best for multiracial people, because everybody was poor. Everybody lived in the tents, and under buildings, and under gratings, together.

I should not ever live with anyone, because I just don't have the patience for it. I'm very cranky around other people.

You don't want to think something might be racist, but it might be, because your gut is telling you it is

It you want to be somebody, If you want to go some where, you've got to wake up and pay attention

I don't look like Halle Berry. But chances are she's going to end up looking like me.

When I listen to these women, it makes what I thought were my hard knocks feel like little nudges.

Just call me black, if you want to call me anything.

The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American.

You know what? I think the American people are a little pissed, and I think they're pissed at both parties - I think they're really pissed at both parties - and it will be reflected during election time ...

We're dealing with old issues that aren't ours. We carry them and we pass them on to those who come after us. I am hoping to crack some of those.

I don't think in terms of failure ... I don't feel like anyone outside of me should be setting limitations. People should be encouraged to shoot for the moon.

Children are a quality of life ... when our children are happy, then we are better as human beings.

You have to believe in yourself in spite of what other people believe.

It bums me out tremendously what the church has become, and if it's got me bummed, imagine what Jesus Christ must be feeling.

I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.

Is there any forgiveness? If somebody does something wrong, we now have copped this "off with the head" attitude, which, I confess, feels great sometimes, but come on. Why do we paint everyone with the same brush? Why does it seem more & more we want people ruined rather than rehabilitated?

When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire.

When I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.

When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked.

And for some reason, there seems to be no internal policeman for a bully that says maybe you're hurting somebody's feelings. Or worse, maybe you're going to push this perons too far and they'll do something terrible. Something's not processing correctly in a bully's head. It doesn't seem to occur to them that what they're doing is corssing a line that shouldn't be crossed. And it's really, in my mind, no different than taking on defenseless kids. You do it just because you can.
It's an exercise in power; but it's also meant to dinsintegrate someone's Self. It's meant to take away their sense of who they are. And why? Because they're not as strong, or as bit, or as witty.
Bullies are ball-less, soul-less creatures to me. And they're not just children, they're adults too.
It's a terrorist act.
It's meant to make you feel afraid. It's meant to make you feel powerless to take care of the situation you find yourself in.

I'm fighting the label of 'Black' actress simply because it's very limiting in people's eyes, especially people who are making movies.

I'd like somebody to get rid of the death tax. That's what I want. I don't want to get taxed just because I died. I just don't think it's right. If I give something to my kid, I already paid the tax. Why should I have to pay it again because I died?

I am an artist, art has no color and no sex.

I'm a big old egotistical baby and that's okay. I can accept it.

I would love to teach every kid to say "fuck." Hang on, now, hang on, listen to why. The reason is because to me, that is a word that doesn't have any effect. But "stupid" and "dummy"? You can say it to someone who is six and you can say it to someone who is a hundred and six and they will hunch their shoulders and it will be like somebody kicked them in the stomach because they are harsh, ugly words.

You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.

I believe that parts of people like John Garfield and Moms Mabley, the parts of them that I needed to be able to do what I'm doing, came into me. There's a very nice feeling that there are many, many spirits inside of me looking after me ...

It never occurs to me that there are things I can't do.

And I don't believe that I have to stay on one side of the fence or the other. I don't believe that there is any good career move or bad career move. I believe there are only the things that make me happy.

When I was a kid they didn't call it dyslexia. They called it you know, you were slow, or you were retarded, or whatever. What you can never change is the effect that the words 'dumb' and 'stupid' have on young people. I knew I wasn't stupid, and I knew I wasn't dumb. My mother told me that. If you read to me, I could tell you everything that you read. They didn't know what it was. They knew I wasn't lazy, but what was it?

I can do anything. I can be anything. No one ever told me I couldn't. No one ever expressed this idea that I was limited to any one thing, and so I think in terms of what's possible, not impossible.

I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done.

Sitting at the table during Color Purple and looking up and suddenly realizing I was acting in front of Steven Spielberg, was pretty cool. It was pretty good.

I have the strangest time to get cast in anything. 'Ghost' was the same thing. Six months I had to wait for them to decide they had seen everybody possible. Why not? What limits me? I'm black? Oh, am I black?

TALIBAN-ESQUE Any behavior that imposes the beliefs of one person on everyone else. Conversations with the Taliban-esque are impossible. They aren't even conversations. WIth them, it's my way or no way.

If you can handle the fact that people are going to be mad at you when you do what you think is right, you'll be alright.

I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.

I don't really view communism as a bad thing.

I don't have to be bam, bam, bam, funny when I'm working. I can tell stories, and there's some funny in them.

In the dark times, if you have something to hold on to, which is yourself, you'll survive.

If every American donated five hours a week, it would equal the labor of 20 million full-time volunteers.

Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine.

No matter what you say to yourself, you do want to win. You try to look casual, like you're not thinking, 'oh, please pick me.'

Actors have no color. That's the art form.