Elaine Stritch's Quotes

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.

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.'

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.

Let me tell you about those convents. All that crap about extending the pinkie finger while sipping tea is a myth. Convent schools are breeding grounds for great broads and occasionally one-of-the-boys. Convent schools teach you to play against everything, which is what I'm still doing.

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

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.

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.

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

All you have to do is say, 'I'm going home,' and you're the most popular girl at the party.

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

Audiences are not strangers to me. They're the best friends I've got in my life.

Betty White is probably a very nice woman.

Certain type of actresses get younger instead of older. I always say, 'Only ingenues age.'

Diabetes is a lousy, lousy disease.

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

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

I am not influenced by other human beings. But I am inspired.

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.'

I compare Stephen Sondheim with humor, because humor is unanalyzable. You can't analyze humor. You just have to get through it.

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

I don't have a great talent for explaining myself in acting because I can't explain it.

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

I don't think there's any thrill in the world like doing work you're good at.

I don't want to see a movie twice. I don't want to do anything twice.

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.

I find it easier to abstain than do a little bit of anything. I'm not a 'little bit' kind of dame. I want it all, whatever I do.

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

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

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

I love reviews. Anybody who tells you they don't read reviews is a liar.

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

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.