Barbra Streisand Quotes

• "A large part of me is pure nebbish - plain, dull, uninteresting. There's a more flamboyant part, too. Obviously."
• "And remember, this was a president [George W. Bush] who was selected by the Supreme Court rather than the people."
• "Around people I don't know, I'm totally at a loss."
• "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."
• "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."
• "How I wish we lived in a time when laws were not necessary to safeguard us from discrimination."
• "I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy, and driven."
• "I arrived in Hollywood without having my nose fixed, my teeth capped, or my name changed. That is very gratifying to me."
• "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."
• "I don't care what you say about me. Just be sure to spell my name wrong."
• "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 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."
• "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."
• "I find bringing the country to the brink of war unilaterally five weeks before an election questionable - and very, very frightening."
• "I find George Bush and Dick Cheney frightening, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft frightening."
• "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 [Diana Ross] singing my songs. Who the hell does she thinks she is? The world doesn't need another Streisand!"
• "I just don't want to be hampered by my own limitations."
• "I knew that with a mouth like mine, I just hadda be a star or something."
• "I was a personality before I became a person - I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy and driven."
• "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."
• "I'm not that ambitious any more. I just like my privacy. I wish I really wasn't talked about at all."
• "I'm tired of malicious articles slandering me."
• "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."
• "I've considered having my nose fixed. But I didn't trust anyone enough. If I could do it myself with a mirror."
• "It's like an American tradition. A person gets successful and then he's supposed to change for the worse. It's silly."
• "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?"
• "Men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work... a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work."
• "Most awards, y'know, they don't give you unless you go and get them - didja know that? Terribly discouraging."
• "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."
• "Myths are a waste of time. They prevent progression."
• "New York critics - I hear when one of them watched A Star Is Born, he talked back to the screen."
• "Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice."
• "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."
• "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."
• "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."
• "They're called "angels" because they're in heaven until the reviews come out."
• "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."
• "We cannot let the right wing roll back more than thirty years of social progress."
• "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."
• "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."
• "Why am I so famous? What am I doing right? What are the others doing wrong?"
• "Why does a woman work ten years to change a man's habits and then complain that he's not the man she married?"
• "Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?"
• "I arrived in Hollywood without having my nose fixed, my teeth capped, or my name changed. That is very gratifying to me."
• "Why does a woman work ten years to change a man's habits and then complain that he's not the man she married?"
• "Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?"
• "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."
• "We cannot let the right wing roll back more than thirty years of social progress."
• "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."
• "Myths are a waste of time. They prevent progression."
• "Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice."