Harvey Fierstein Quotes

"It's through sheer will that I can sing."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Will)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Change, Sex, Thought, Play)

"Political movements always belong to the young."
- Harvey Fierstein

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Life, Silence)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Work, Play)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Chance, Now, Suicide)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Love, Life, Theatre)

"There are times when I don't take roles because I don't want to be perceived a certain way."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Want)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Gay, Now, Right, Youth)

"To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Time, Work)

"Well, I always looked at Mulan as a movie about a lesbian coming out."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Lesbian)

"What looks absolutely fabulous in rehearsal can fall flat in front of an audience. The audience dictates what you do or don't change."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: 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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Time, People, Help, May, Old, Voice)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Character, Actor, Personality, Romantic)

"It's a lot of fun to play someone you don't normally think of yourself as."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Fun, Play)

"The world is full of more interesting things than my voice."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Voice, World)

"Also, if you want to reach people, theatre is not always the best way to do it."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: People, Theatre, Want)

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

"Actually, I think the average voice is like 70 percent tone and 30 percent noise. My voice is 95 percent noise."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Voice)

"And I believe that you never be limited in what you do, so I like to do movies, I like to do television."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Movies, Television)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Key, Right, Songs, Voice, Yesterday)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Idea, Play, Song, Songs, Will)

"How time files when you's doin' all the talking."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Time, Talking)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Life, Work, People, May)

"I actually pray everyday, but I don't believe in God."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: God)

"In London they don't like you if you're still alive."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: London)

"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!"
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Work, People, Disease, Years)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Power, Positive, Care, Energy, Prayer, World)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Time)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Pretty, Song)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Diversity)

"If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?"
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Life, Commitment)

"A child's kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?"
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Kiss, Magic)

"I am thrilled - I can't stress that enough - thrilled when I see kids getting active."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Kids, Stress)

"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."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Character, Failure, Colors, Song)