Elaine Stritch Quotes

It's very disconcerting to start out and to say, "I'm going to tell the truth," and then to realize it's that much trouble. ~ Elaine Stritch

People will always be around to tell you you're no good or you're wrong or unwise to keep doing what you want to do. They're wrong. They're always wrong. Keep going. ~ Elaine Stritch

Diabetes is a lousy, lousy disease. ~ Elaine Stritch

Tony Bennett said to me, "Wow, your talent is amazing." Maybe he's a bore, maybe he's a jerk, but when he said that to me, I didn't need anything more than that. ~ Elaine Stritch

You can't be funny unless you're tragic, and you can't be tragic unless you're funny. ~ Elaine Stritch

Two drinks a day. Two drinks a day. TWO DRINKS A DAY! It doesn't work! Not when you want eleven, and not when you start shopping for wine glasses in the vase department at Bloomingdales. ~ Elaine Stritch

Raining. Oh, brother, a scratch on the fender. Damn rabbi on his unicycle.
Wait a minute, where are my car keys? Could have sworn I left them in this pocket. No, just some loose change and ticket stubs from the all-black version of Elaine Stritch' s one-woman show.
Did I check my desk? Better go back inside. What's in the top drawer here? Hmm. Envelopes, my paper clips, a loaded revolver in case the tenant in 2A begins yodelling again. ~ Woody Allen

I have not had any of that surgical stuff. I am too curious to find out exactly how I progress every day of my life naturally. That is what fascinates me. ~ Elaine Stritch

I care about money, very much. I want it. I don't ever want to be without it. My mother once said about me, 'Elaine has to have money.' ~ Elaine Stritch

I don't know what to do with Warren Beatty. All I know is that he wasn't attracted to me. That's all right. ~ Elaine Stritch

I love holidays in New York. I love 'em. I want to celebrate something all the time, and New York has holidays for every day of the week, practically. I like holidays in New York City. ~ Elaine Stritch

I tell the truth, and it has gotten me into a lot of trouble. My dad used to say to me, 'If you tell the truth all day long, you will end up in jail.' ~ Elaine Stritch

It was surreal to play opposite Angela Lansbury and Elaine Stritch, Bernadette Peters and Catherine Zeta-Jones. There was so much to learn just from watching them, and it was an honor to share the stage with women who have accomplished what they have. ~ Aaron Lazar

Drama drama drama. The public wants it, so let them get the whole ugly mess. Why not? ~ Elaine Stritch

I love audiences. My God, the best friends in the world! ~ Elaine Stritch

If somebody doesn't have any talent, get off the stage! you're wasting my time. ~ Elaine Stritch

I like being talked about. I think some people really don't ... because they're secure enough and they don't need that. ~ Elaine Stritch

I'm a good acting partner for me ... when I don't have anyone else, I do really well! ~ Elaine Stritch

Talent is very dangerous. It alienates people. ~ Elaine Stritch

I sing 'I Have Confidence' from 'The Sound of Music' as Judy Garland, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Elaine Stritch and Julie Andrews - each alternating lines. ~ Sara Chase

When you're dealing with your life, my God, you gotta tell the truth. ~ Elaine Stritch

My idea of serenity - that wonderful word that everybody's trying to get into their life - is call-waiting. ~ Elaine Stritch

There's something that really frightens me - and that's fear. ~ Elaine Stritch

I do believe in the infallibility of the Pope, because I think we have to believe in something. ~ Elaine Stritch

There's certainly nothing lasting and definite about the theater. ~ Elaine Stritch

I don't have to go to a doctor and have my face changed. It terrifies me that women do that. ~ Elaine Stritch

Onstage, nothing is as important as truth, nothing. As soon as you lie, they know it. ~ Elaine Stritch

There's something exciting about being afraid. ~ Elaine Stritch

I am not influenced by other human beings. But I am inspired. ~ Elaine Stritch

Why haven't I made more movies? Nobody asked me. ~ Elaine Stritch

Bette Davis taught Hollywood to follow an actress instead of the actress following the camera, and she's probably the best movie actress there's ever been. ~ Elaine Stritch

I want to settle down this last time. I say last, because I don't think I'm in any condition to live a long time from now. The bell's gonna ring pretty soon. ~ Elaine Stritch

When I'm playing comedy, it is such a crap shoot of what will work and what won't. ~ Elaine Stritch

I can't explain chemistry. I really can't. I haven't got a clue what it's all about. It just happens. It's like falling in love. You can't explain why you fall in love or explain why it's this particular person. ~ Elaine Stritch

The people in New York - their humor is on a level that goes, uh, very deep, you know? ~ Elaine Stritch

I was the first critic ever to win a Tony - for co-authoring 'Elaine Stritch at Liberty.' Criticism is a life without risk; the critic is risking his opinion, the maker is risking his life. It's a humbling thought but important for the critic to keep it in mind - a thought he can only know if he's made something himself. ~ John Lahr

All of the writing on '30 Rock' is a joy to go into. It's pretty hot stuff. ~ Elaine Stritch

I have no intention of retiring. Even my blood sugar is better when I'm working. ~ Elaine Stritch

PARODY OF "YOU'RE THE TOP" BY COLE PORTER
You're the pop
You're the baby's father
You're the pop
But you needn't bother
I will make no claim to your ancient name at all
When I let you make me
You promised you'd take me to the city hall
My mistake wasn't getting plastered,
What a break for the little b***stard
I was bad when I let you get on top
But if baby I'm the momma,
You're the pop!
[Sung by Elaine Stritch when interviewed by Michael Parkinson on YouTube. ~ Cole Porter

I don't wear a wig. I'd feel terrible onstage with a wig. I hate to be so 'Actors Studio'-ish, but I like to feel it's me out there. ~ Elaine Stritch

I've changed a lot, too! I'm different, too. I have far more in some ways to offer and far less in other ways to offer. That's life. And, you know, life goes on! ~ Elaine Stritch

Well if I had my choice I would not - I wouldn't mind working with Alec Baldwin, but the mother role - I'm kidding. It's terrific. I'll tell you what happened with Alec Baldwin and myself. This is a couple acting together just this side of heaven. He's one of the best actors I've ever worked with in whole life. And I - I'm not overdoing it. I just think he's about the best around today. So I got lucky. ~ Elaine Stritch

These performers that go on about their technique and craft - oh, puleeze! How boring! I don't know what 'technique' means. But I do know what experience is. ~ Elaine Stritch

I never found anyone who could look after me as well as I could look after myself. ~ Elaine Stritch

I certainly was not the romantic lead. I couldn't be that, because I was not that good looking. And that is something about Hollywood that I do not like at all. Why can't a woman who is just normally good looking fall in love? I mean, everybody in the movies is so good looking. ~ Elaine Stritch

I get sick of saying how hard everything is. It's hard to get up in the morning. Everything's hard. Everything takes effort. ~ Elaine Stritch

Getting to perform at the Carlyle, following in the footsteps of women like Elaine Stritch, Barbara Cook, Christine Ebersole, Kelli O'Hara, and so many others, is nothing short of a dream come true. ~ Laura Osnes

I think it's the wrong way around to say, 'When you get older move to the country.' I think when you get older you move to New York. ~ Elaine Stritch

There's nothing attractive about doing a documentary. Nothing. It's hard, hard work, and I find having all the attention of the day on me a very unattractive proposition. ~ Elaine Stritch

I wouldn't have a nose job. I like my nose fine. ~ Elaine Stritch

There will always be ladies who lunch. Always. And apparently they live a long time. ~ Elaine Stritch

I felt that I committed myself too much. I promised too much. But that way it's exciting. ~ Elaine Stritch

Fear is the base of what everybody does wrong in their lives. ~ Elaine Stritch

New Yorkers stop me on the street all the time to say, 'You're terrific! You're the nuts!' ~ Elaine Stritch

If I see a great performance on television, onstage, in the movies, I go to work the next day with a renewed energy and less fear. These great artists take me out of my life and make me want to go there. ~ Elaine Stritch

Talent is seductive. ~ Elaine Stritch

You have to be very, very good looking to get ahead in motion pictures. ~ Elaine Stritch

Woody Allen is a better actor than anybody from the Actors Studio, and he can be anybody he says he is. ~ Elaine Stritch

When I want to do something badly enough, I do it, but there is a practical side of me that thinks I should be paid fairly. ~ Elaine Stritch

People ask me, Jimmy, howd you get here tonight. Lets just say it involved a two-hour make-out session with Elaine Stritch. It got pretty heavy actually, I almost had to host. ~ Jimmy Fallon

I'd like to discover life. Quite frankly I don't know how to be happy. I have not a clue. I only serve - and I don't say that with any grandeur. I just serve others through entertaining. That's when I am happy. I'm not just delighted with myself when I'm entertaining, but I'm happier than when I'm not. ~ Elaine Stritch

For me, going to London is like coming home. In fact, I've often entertained the idea of ending my days there. ~ Elaine Stritch

I love Birmingham, Michigan. It's lovely - you know, it's very similar to the Hamptons. ~ Elaine Stritch

I don't know what should have happened in my life, but I do know that I'm dancing as fast as I can. ~ Elaine Stritch

As a diabetic, I'm a walking picnic. I have to eat measured amounts of food at certain times. ~ Elaine Stritch

I think the most interesting New Yorkers are the people who were not born here. ~ Elaine Stritch

I'm funny when I want to be. And I'm even funny when I don't want to be. ~ Elaine Stritch

I was so happy I didn't have to work that night. That was the truth, because show business is about the hardest profession in the world. ~ Elaine Stritch

What I want to understand is what I am talking about on the stage. What I don't want to understand is what the government is talking about when the government tells me about taxes. ~ Elaine Stritch

All moms are different. I was made to be the exact mom that my children need. I am glad to learn from other moms, but I have to be watchful that I don't try to become someone I am not. ~ Elaine Mingus

New York
November 10, 1958

Dear Thom:

We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First - if you are in love - that's a good thing - that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second - There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you - of kindness and consideration and respect - not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply - of course it isn't puppy love.

But I don't think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it - and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone - there is no possible harm in saying so - only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must tak ~ John Steinbeck

For a full two hours, he stood at that door, a cloud of uncertainty ruling his mind. Damian felt like his heart was about to burst. Could she love him? Was it really true? ~ Elaine White

The big boss wants to take us both out for dinner tonight. Apparently he's into getting to know the families of key employees or something."
"Well, that sounds potentially boring," Elaine remarked. "Do you know where you're going?"
Completely off the top of my head, I named the swankiest restaurant that I could think of.
"You'd better dress up," Elaine warned. "I think that's one of those places where, if you show up not wearing pantyhose, they give you some."
"That is so gross," I said. ~ Cameron Dokey

I am afraid much of my existence is going to be more or less alone, and I might as well go into training for it. It comes on me at night mostly, in little waves of panic, that constrict something in my stomach. But don't you think it is good to fight these things? ~ Elaine Steinbeck

I just have a sense that, you know, I'm curious about what is religion about, you know? Why do some of us still engage it? It's not because it's a set of old beliefs or old ideas. Or even, particularly, the view that this is the only true religion. Many of us no longer accept those views. ~ Elaine Pagels

Jaxton hadn't changed, but he had. Maybe his old crush still hated him, but it shouldn't
matter anymore. It didn't matter anymore. He was older, wiser and he had moved on. Jaxton
was nothing more than an old high school crush. ~ Elaine White

What did I feel? Appalled. Astonished. Bewildered. I thought I was doing so well. I thought I was charming the hell out of him. I thought I had him eating out of my hand. Well: I thought I was getting away with it. I might have known. There is always a catch. But suddenly I felt very very young, like a child. Suddenly I wanted to run to - God knows whom, maybe God Himself - why is there never a face I can put to whom I want to run? - and cry, 'But I thought he liked me. All I want is to be liked.' And then, thank heaven, cold rage and fury. ~ Elaine Dundy

Mother energy is universal. It is the large expression of the sacred feminine that comes from spirit. It is embodied in all our biological mothers, but its not limited or confined to them. ~ Elaine Seiler

The philosopher Elaine Scarry has observed that "beauty always takes place in the particular." Cruelty, on the other hand, prefers abstraction. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

You love her and deal with her in all honesty. You earn her trust. And then you trust the Almighty, who made women the way they are, believing that He knew what he was doing. ~ Elaine Coffman

We are a package deal, however. Our trait of sensitivity means we will also be cautious, inward, needing extra time alone. Because people without the trait (the majority) do not understand that, they see us as timid, shy, weak, or that greatest sin of all, unsociable. Fearing these labels, we try to be like others. But that leads to our becoming overaroused and distressed. Then that gets us labeled neurotic or crazy, first by others and then by ourselves. ~ Elaine N. Aron

The Lord, creator of life, has given us information to act upon that is guaranteed by him to guide us to our goal of life eternal. ~ Elaine A. Cannon

The fruit of our labors is sweet when the work is consecrated to God. But we have to be able to weather the conditions - the winds, the rain or the drought, the brilliant sun and sometimes the bitter cold. Sometimes our work needs to be directed at improving our ground rather than excusing our own harvests because the place we have been given is a little hard; there are too many rocks, too many hills, too little top soil. If we focus on where we are instead of what we can do with our plot, we will find our efforts significantly diminished. ~ Elaine L. Jack

With deregulation, privatisation, free trade, what we're seeing is yet another enclosure and, if you like, private taking of the commons. One of the things I find very interesting in our current debates is this concept of who creates wealth. That wealth is only created when it's owned privately. What would you call clean water, fresh air, a safe environment? Are they not a form of wealth? And why does it only become wealth when some entity puts a fence around it and declares it private property? Well, you know, that's not wealth creation. That's wealth usurpation. ~ Elaine Bernard

Jesus Christ rose from the grave.' With this proclamation, the Christian church began. This may be the fundamental element of Christian faith; certainly it is the most radical. ~ Elaine Pagels

Art is not an object, but a way of looking at an object. ~ Elaine Equi

I'm an HSP to the core. I avoid violent imagery (I abandoned reading Elaine Aron's The Highly Sensitive Person on my first try because - in typical HSP fashion - I couldn't handle the frequent references to sexual abuse). I'm very empathetic, and I feel as though my head will explode when two people try to talk to me at the same time. I have difficulty making dinner while the counter is cluttered with the morning's dishes. I lose my mind when someone is singing while the radio is playing a different song. Watching the news makes me want to assume the fetal position and never get up. ~ Anne Bogel

I had no technique for dealing with him: only an overpowering, unnerving, irrational, chemical desire to be with him. ~ Elaine Dundy

Elaine and I got married in summer 1979, we went on our honeymoon and came back for the premiere of 'Scum.' All of sudden my face was on billboards in Leicester Square and people were crowding outside the cinema, going mad about the film. It was a complete shock. ~ Ray Winstone

Throughout the ages, Christians have adapted John of Patmos's visions to changing times, reading their own social, political and religious conflicts into the cosmic war he so powerfully evokes. Yet his Book of Revelation appeals not only to fear and desires for vengeance but also to hope. ~ Elaine Pagels

I need to say something. Take it anyway you like," Ian stated, his eyes boring into hers with a fervor that left her holding her breath.

Elaine started to shake her head. "Look, we just met…you don't need to say…"

His deep, cultured voice interrupted her. "Everything you are, Laney, resides in your eyes. I need to see you - all of you. Don't take that from me while I'm still here. Please."

Tears welled. "You don't even know me," she whispered. "How can you say that?"

"Because I think I do know you - I just haven't figured out how. ~ R.W. Patterson

The universe will use any vehicle and any medium to communicate with us. Our job is to be alert and to listen. ~ Elaine Seiler

There is no evidence that the author of the Book of Revelation, John of Patmos, read anything that we think of as a New Testament book. I don't see any evidence that he knew what was in the Gospels, or the letters of Paul, which I don't think he would have liked at all. ~ Elaine Pagels

As an extension of Christ in the lives of his children is the only trend enough for a woman's precious energies. ~ Elaine A. Cannon

Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate . . .'73 ~ Elaine Pagels

So long as Christians remained members of a suspect society, subject to death, the boldest among them maintained that, since demons controlled the government and inspired its agents, the believer could gain freedom at their hands only in death. ~ Elaine Pagels

Coaching helps you take stock of where you are now in all aspects of your life, and how that compares to where you would like to be. ~ Elaine MacDonald

About the gnostic writers themselves and the setting in which they lived we know little, although gnostic Christians were influential enough to be denounced at length. ~ Elaine Pagels

Mona: "There's this girl who's following me around. I've been trying to lose her."
Elaine: "Black hair and amazing eye shadow, right? You can't lose her, Mona. But you're okay if we stick together. Anyone who's with me she sort of ignores. ~ Mike Carey

Evan slung his arm over my shoulder. "That's my mom and dad," he pointed to a couple approaching us as families trickled onto the field. "Mom! Get a picture of me and she-wolf?"
"Sure, sure," the strawberry blonde lady said, digging in her purse. "Aha! Here it is. I'm Elaine, Evan's mom," she announced to us. "Now smile!"
I smiled but just before the flash went off Evan kissed my cheek. I gasped in surprise, probably making the funniest face known to man.
Evan snatched the camera from his mom and laughed. "That is totally going to be my facebook profile pic. Take a look she-wolf."
He turned the camera so I could see the image on the screen.
Oh, God.
I narrowed my eyes and pointed a finger at Evan. "You better promise me that, that picture never sees the light of day."
"Well, technically it's already seen the light of day, seeing as it's the morning and all."
"Evan, you know what I mean."
"Fine," he lowered his head, "I won't post it on facebook."
"Or twitter, instagram, or any other picture sharing site. Got it? Maybe you should just delete it now?"
"Nah," Evan grinned. "I'm keeping this forever and ever as proof that I kissed the she-wolf. ~ Micalea Smeltzer