Barbra Streisand Quotes

1. I don't care what you say about me. Just be sure to spell my name wrong.


2. What is exciting is not for one person to be stronger than the other... but for two people to have met their match and yet they are equally as stubborn, as obstinate, as passionate, as crazy as the other.

3. I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy, and driven.

4. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

5. I was a personality before I became a person.

6. Why does a woman work ten years to change a man's habits and then complain that he's not the man she married?

7. We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities. (on George Bush)




8. I wish I could be like Shaw who once read a bad review of one of his plays, called the critic and said: "I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me."

9. A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. A man who invested wisely would be admired, but a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.

10. How I wish we lived in a time when laws were not necessary to safeguard us from discrimination.

11. I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good.

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


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

14. My biggest nightmare is I'm driving home and get sick and go to hospital. I say: "Please help me." And the people say: "Hey, you look like…" And I'm dying while they're wondering whether I'm Barbra Streisand.

15. I arrived in Hollywood without having my nose fixed, my teeth capped, or my name changed. That is very gratifying to me.

16. 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.

17. I find George Bush and Dick Cheney frightening, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft frightening.

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


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

20. I just don't want to be hampered by my own limitations.

21. I knew that with a mouth like mine, I just hadda be a star or something.

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

23. I'm tired of malicious articles slandering me.

24. I've considered having my nose fixed. But I didn't trust anyone enough. If I could do it myself with a mirror.

25. It is every woman's dream to be some man's dream woman.





26. 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?

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

28. Myths are a waste of time. They prevent progression.

29. Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice.

30. 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.

31. There is nothing more important in life than love.







32. They're called "angels" because they're in heaven until the reviews come out.

33. To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do - bad or good.

34. What does it mean when people applaud? Should I give 'em money? Say thank you? Lift my dress? The lack of applause - that I can respond to.

35. Why am I so famous? What am I doing right? What are the others doing wrong?





36. Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

37. 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".

38. Bitches. It's a very male-chauvinist word. I resent it deeply. A person who's a bitch would seem to be mean for no reason. I'm not a mean person. Maybe I'm rude without being aware of it - that's possible.

39. And remember, this was a president (George W. Bush) who was selected by the Supreme Court rather than the people.






40. Oh God, don't envy me, I have my own pains.

41. How could such a destructive man (George W. Bush) be so popular with the American people? Not only is he poisoning our air and water - he's poisoning our political system as well.

42. The result (Republicans winning the Senate) would be devastating for reproductive choice, the environment, civil liberties, Social Security and health care, as well as corporate accountability.

43. It's like an American tradition. A person gets successful and then he's supposed to change for the worse. It's silly.

44. 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)

45. New York critics - I hear when one of them watched "A Star Is Born", he talked back to the screen.

46. I don't know why it is that we need to denigrate, to knock down. It's so unhealthy for the culture. It's so sick.

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

48. I find bringing the country to the brink of war unilaterally five weeks before an election questionable - and very, very frightening.

49. A human being is only interesting if he’s in contact with himself. I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it

50. I don't like the word "superstar". It has ridiculous implications. These words - star, stupor, superstar, stupid star - they're misleading. It's a myth.

51. You know, I can't remember my good reviews. I remember negative ones. They stay in my mind. (ABC News - 2005)









52. For me, one of the most disturbing elements of the right wing's political agenda is that it believes that there is one correct spiritual and moral path for all people to follow. The danger inherent in this is its explicit refusal to accept anyone who happens to lead a different lifestyle, and the condemnation of those who differ. (The Advocate - 1999)

53. I was on Nixon's Enemies List because I supported Gene McCarthy in 1968 and raised funds for Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers trial. Then I did a concert for George McGovern. I campaigned for Bella Abzug from the back of a truck when she was elected to Congress. I was operating off my instincts, doing what I felt right as a citizen. I'm not a full-time activist. I've always been pro-choice, for the equality of women, for the protection of the environment. That's why I have a foundation to fortify my beliefs. That's how I give back. That's how I raise my voice. And whether the right-wing conservatives like it or not, I will keep on raising it. (Los Angeles Times - 1993)

54. Everyone has a right to love and be loved, and nobody on this earth has the right to tell anyone that their love for another human being is morally wrong. (The Advocate - 1999)

55. I am also very proud to be a liberal. Why is that so terrible these days? The liberals were liberatorsthey fought slavery, fought for women to have the right to vote, fought against Hitler, Stalin, fought to end segregation, fought to end apartheid. Liberals put an end to child labor and they gave us the five day work week! What's to be ashamed of?


56. I believe in love and lust and sex and romance. I don't want everything to add up to some perfect equation. I want mess and chaos. I want someone to go crazy out of his mind for me. I want to feel passion and heat and sweat and madness. I want valenties and cupids and all of that crap. I WANT IT ALL.

57. Life's too short. Start with Dessert!

58. I tell you what I envy about people in love - I'd love it if someone knew me I mean really knew me. What I like what I'm afraid of what kind of toothpaste I use." - Rose Morgan


59. Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb, in a constant search for truth.

60. The audience is the barometer of the truth.

61. One thing's for sure: now when I look at Funny Girl (1968), I think I was gorgeous. I was too beautiful to play Fanny Brice.

62. It was a very, very important medal for the German team. I had a perfect race. I was in the top five from the start. My only goal was to get to the podium.

63. I did all I could, but there was nothing more in there for me. I had light cramps in my arm. Of course, the disappointment is great but there are more races.






64. The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our country's immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically.

65. I can't stand to see red in my profit-or-loss column. I'm Taurus the bull, so I react to red. If I see it, I sell my stocks quickly.

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