Harvey Fierstein Quotes (44 Quotes)

It would be nice to redefine ourselves - at the moment we are drowning in diversity. That's not a bad thing, its just going to take a while before we refocus.

It's through sheer will that I can sing.

I got the regular call, that they were doing a Broadway musical of Hairspray, and would I come and audition. I was familiar with the movie, because at the time it came out my lover wrote for Premiere magazine, and we had to see everything.

I actually pray everyday, but I don't believe in God.

To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky.

But actually just yesterday we raised the key of one of my songs two steps up, so my voice is obviously responding. It's a muscle, and the more you use it, the more you use it right, the more you should get out of it. So yes, I sing.

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.

And I believe that you never be limited in what you do, so I like to do movies, I like to do television.

In 1961 you had the American dream at its most fully realized. Tract homes, all of that culture was at its height. It was a peaceful time. Then you look at '62. ... It's the bubbling pot. By 1964 you had cities burning.

The world is full of more interesting things than my voice.

It's a lot of fun to play someone you don't normally think of yourself as.

I burned out on AIDS and did no AIDS work for a couple of years. I was so angry that people were still getting this disease that nobody can give you - you have to go out and get it!

So, did I work with Warhol? I worked with him less on that play then I did on other things. He actually did a portrait of my rabbit and some other stuff. Warhol was definitely... Warhol.

How time files when you's doin' all the talking.

I didn't want to be part of a touring company they dropped off.

There are times when I don't take roles because I don't want to be perceived a certain way.

The audience here seems a lot more relaxed, a lot more in the mood just to have a great time.

Pork was in 1971, and I stopped hanging out at The Factory by like 1973.

Last season, there were 27 gay roles on television - and not one was played by a gay person. So I'm a little sensitive to that stuff.

A child's kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?

Actually, I think the average voice is like 70 percent tone and 30 percent noise. My voice is 95 percent noise.

Exactly where his house is now, Harvey says. In a small town in Connecticut. He's tearing down the one he lived in for 22 years and rebuilding. My house was designed by a heterosexual architect for a heterosexual man, ... There was no woman involved. When I bought the house, there wasn't a broom closet. You have to walk with your groceries from the parking area through the entire house to get to the kitchen.

You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theatre because it is an unmerciful life. It's six days a week. It's eight performances a week. And that's doing the exact same thing over and over and over again.

What looks absolutely fabulous in rehearsal can fall flat in front of an audience. The audience dictates what you do or don't change.

When I write stuff and I help cast it, I turn away good people all the time. I may turn them down because this one's too tall and that one doesn't have a high enough voice or this one looks to old to match up with that one - there's a billion reasons not to hire somebody.

I don't believe we need to take millions and millions of dollars and build churches and stuff... I think we could build houses instead.

My play Safe Sex was picked apart because critics thought it was untrue. It was a play in which no one had AIDS, but the characters talked about how it was going to change their lives.

I do believe we're all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other.

I'm sure there's going to be some material from This Is Not Going To Be Pretty. I usually use that song to just introduce myself to the audience, although the patter in between the song is always different.

In London they don't like you if you're still alive.

To me, if a heterosexual has a right to do it, then I have a right to do it. And if it's important to the gay youth - who are now setting the agenda - then its important to me.

If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?

I actually may do a musical next year... not one that I've written; one that I may star in. Plus my concert and other people's work and all of a sudden you've got a very full life.

Political movements always belong to the young.

Time will tell us what we did and didn't do.

In this Duplex picture it's a role where it looks like I have nothing to do with the plot, and then there's a twist, so it's fun.

I am thrilled - I can't stress that enough - thrilled when I see kids getting active.

Also, if you want to reach people, theatre is not always the best way to do it.

Well, I always looked at Mulan as a movie about a lesbian coming out.

But I'm not adverse to the idea of Torch Song as a musical. It would just be different. Because the play will always be there exactly as it was, and in a musical you could tell a lot of the story through songs.

With her understanding of 'Fiddler's' important place in theatrical history, I am positive she will uphold that tradition excitingly.

In Torch Song, I did that character almost non-stop from 1978 until I made the movie in 1987. Then I had some failure, which also colors how you react to doing other things.

The great thing about suicide is that it's not one of those things you have to do now or you lose your chance. I mean, you can always do it later.

You know, I always got offered other stuff. Not the romantic leads, obviously. But very often it's a role that's underwritten, where the character has no personality at all. And they need a character actor who can fill it in.