Harvey Fierstein
I often say that if you want to really want to understand the contract of marriage, just ask anyone who has been divorced. The marriage contract is one of property rights. Or maybe you can look in the Bible to see what Adam had to say about divorce, since Eve was his second wife.Collection: Marriage
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.Collection: Positive
Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate.Collection: Power
Beware of anyone who says they know. Trust me, they don't, or they wouldn't have to say they did.Collection: Trust
State-sanctioned marriage is a civil contract, period. A contract is not a judgment of moral value. It is a legal agreement between two parties that testifies to a meeting of minds between those consenting entities. It is not a religious act or rite and so has nothing to do with Adam and Eve or Steve or even Harvey.Collection: Marriage
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.Collection: Romantic
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.Collection: Failure
To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky.Collection: Chance
I've been dating since I was 15 years old, and I just don't seem to do it well.Collection: Dating
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.Collection: Life
Theater is my temple and my religion and my act of faith. Strangers sit in a room together and believe together.Collection: Faith
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.Collection: Chance
A child's kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?
I have a lot of faith in President Obama. The thing that seems to be true of him is that he doesn't speak when you would expect him to speak. He's very measured in his response to things. He likes to get all the facts first before he shoots his mouth off. It makes me crazy; it makes a lot of people crazy.
Nothing binds a people to their leader like a common enemy. Voters don't change governments during war.
It's a wonderful world. You can't go backwards. You're always moving forward. It's the wonderful part about life. And that's terrific.
While we dance in the streets and pat ourselves on the back for being a nation great enough to reach beyond racial divides to elect our first African-American president, let us not forget that we remain a nation still proudly practicing prejudice.
What looks absolutely fabulous in rehearsal can fall flat in front of an audience. The audience dictates what you do or don't change.
Pork was in 1971, and I stopped hanging out at The Factory by like 1973.
If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?
How time files when you's doin' all the talking.
In London they don't like you if you're still alive.
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.
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.
It's a lot of fun to play someone you don't normally think of yourself as.
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.
It's through sheer will that I can sing.
Actually, I think the average voice is like 70 percent tone and 30 percent noise. My voice is 95 percent noise.
The world is full of more interesting things than my voice.
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.
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.
Time will tell us what we did and didn't do.
You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theater 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.
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.
Also, if you want to reach people, theatre is not always the best way to do it.
And I believe that you never be limited in what you do, so I like to do movies, I like to do television.
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.
Well, I always looked at Mulan as a movie about a lesbian coming out.
There are times when I don't take roles because I don't want to be perceived a certain way.
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.
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.
Political movements always belong to the young.
I am thrilled - I can't stress that enough - thrilled when I see kids getting active.
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.
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!
I actually pray everyday, but I don't believe in God.
Always admit when you're wrong. You'll save thousands in therapy... and a few friendships too.
Anyone with a smart phone is a potential eyewitness cameraman capturing and transmitting stories at speeds that turn Reuter photos and traditional reporting into, well... yesterday's news.
Theater has to resonate in your heart in a way that movies don't.
Movies are all about plot. Theater, even if it's story heavy, it's about ideas.