Barbra Streisand Quotes - Page 4

No one should have to conform to some mythical concept of the ideal family.

Marlon Brando. The finest actor who ever lived. He was my idol when I was 13. He's done enough work to last two lifetimes. Everything I do, I think: Can Brando play this with me?

I can take any truth; just don't lie to me.

I was kind of a wild child. I wasn't taught the niceties of life.

I'd started going to acting classes at 14, played 'Medea' at 15 and really wanted to be a classical actress.

I don't like talking about myself and I don't like talking about the work.

A large part of me is pure nebbish - plain, dull, uninteresting. There's a more flamboyant part, too. Obviously.

Most awards, you know, they don't give you unless you go and get them - did you know that? Terribly discouraging.

I'm not that ambitious any more. I just like my privacy. I wish I really wasn't talked about at all.

I go by instinct - I don't worry about experience.

It's not a date. We're just agreeing to eat at the same table.

I need instant gratification.

I'm sure that I don't know everything I want to know. I have so much more to learn.

When I was a teenager in New York, I was buying antique clothes. I still am.

Men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work... a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work.

I hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way.

I just don't like the idea of her singing my songs. Who the hell does she thinks she is? The world doesn't need another Streisand! (on Diana Ross)

Around people I don't know, I'm totally at a loss.

I don't enjoy public performances and being up on a stage. I don't enjoy the glamour. Like tonight, I am up on stage and my feet hurt.

I never liked stardom. It's weird to me. I only like the creative process. I only like the work.

I hate tooting my own horn, but after Steven Spielberg saw Yentl, he said: "I wish I could tell you how to fix your picture, but I can't. It's the best film I've seen since Citizen Kane".

You know, for me, the realization that two people should have the right to form a sacred union regardless of their gender was strengthened when I saw a performance of the play The Normal Heart in 1985. After feeling the love those two men had for each other, I dare anybody not to want them to get married by the end.

Our role as artist is more controversial now because there are those, claiming the absolute authority of religion, who detest much of our work as much as they detest most of our politics. Instead of rationally debating subjects like abortion or gay rights, they condemn as immoral those who favor choice and tolerance. They disown their own dark side and magnify everyone else's until, at the extreme, doctors are murdered in the name of protecting life. I wonder, who is this God they invoke, who is so petty and mean? Is God really against gun control and food stamps for poor children?

The audience is the best judge of anything. They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags - they're gonna cough.

I have one son. Of everything I've done in my life, nothing matches the feeling of having life growing inside you.