Valerie Harper
I never smoked in my life. Neither did my mother. And so many women I meet whose mothers or aunts or whoever who have gotten lung cancer were no-time smokers.Collection: Women
When you age, you can do all kinds of roles. You don't have to look great. You can be the mom, the aunt. You can have a small part. You're an actor.Collection: Mom
I've always felt very strongly about human rights for blacks, women, and gays. Our Constitution is about equality for all - that's got to mean something to all of us.Collection: Equality
We're all terminal; none of us are getting out of this alive.
Talk about a woman of a certain age - Pearl Buck was a great prototype of continuing to work. She was in the hospital dying of cancer, and in the next room was her secretary, typing out her next book.
I've always been a team player.
You have to look life in the face, doing what you can where you can.
My stepmother Angela is an Italian from New York City. I based Rhoda on her and a Jewish friend named Penny Ann Green. People often said that Rhoda seemed to be Italian. That was the Angela seeping through.
On 'Rhoda,' they wanted my husband, Joe, to wear a pajama top when we were doing love scenes. They finally let him take it off as long as the audience saw him get into bed wearing pajama bottoms so they didn't think he was completely naked underneath.
I've had very deep moments of sadness. What I do is really sob, really cry, do whatever it is, and then kind of release it. Then I can go cook dinner or make a phone call to a friend.
Don't go to the funeral until the day of the funeral. Live this day.
I love sitting at home. I love laying in bed watching television.
Life has sweetness to it and a beauty and a power that I wanted to celebrate.
It's really important that we don't hang up the membership to the human community at menopause.
Do not tell somebody how to vote, just go up to them and tell them what Fahrenheit 9/11 meant to you. Fahrenheit will probably not win an Academy Award, but if you put it first on your list, it will become a nominee.
I used to get some ego thing out of saying I wasn't a star, just an actress. Forget it. I'm a star. I wanted it. I worked for it. I got it.
I'm painfully middle class.
I really want Americans, and all of us, to be less afraid of death, and know that it's a passage, but that - don't go to the funeral before the day of the funeral.
I'm trying to live every moment as much as I can.
Life does not owe me a shred.
We all have a way to contribute, to your community, to your family, whatever it is you can do.
As long as you're alive, you can do something.
I wouldn't give people advice except to share with them what I'm doing, which is, You're alive - stay alive.
I'm not dying until I do.
I don't have a reputation of being a super-witch who demands pink rugs in the dressing room.
Comedy is saving me.
Don't live in fear of dying.
Every five minutes, every hour, every day, every year that you waste worrying about your cancer - you have forfeited time that you could have been alive having fun.
I had always wanted a steady job in this business, a show that lasted.
Actors often want to look like they're comfortable. You want to go into an audition saying, 'I'm your gal. I'm what you need.' Yet you don't want to push.
I've always done character roles and tons of movies as the so-called star, but I always felt I was one of the team.
I never did stand-up. If I've been funny ever, it was with other actors.
Forgiving is giving up the wish that things could have been different. They weren't. That's the past. Let it go.
I have cancer. It's in my brain... What are you gonna do about it?
With imagery, as actors know, you can make up anything you want to. You can put yourself in icy water to get rid of this or that.
Above all, learn to live when you're dying.
Sometimes I yell at my cancer cells, sometimes I make myself laugh.
Really appreciate the sunset as you're driving home, cursing all the terrible drivers on the road. Be where you are when you're there rather than out there in the future or back there in the past.
I'm talking about enjoying and finding pleasure and interest and happiness and curiosity every moment.
What we really wanted to call it was 'I Rhoda Book.'
Knowing that you have something you have to deal with, rising to the occasion, builds character.
Though I'm 75, I'm not looking forward to death, but it's there for all of us.
If I wake up in the night terrified, I try to find a way to not let the fear have me. Every moment you spend in fear of cancer is a moment you've wasted enjoying life. Replace that fear - get in the moment and enjoy it.
I'm a perfect person to tell people not to give up.
Cancer reminds me of a very bad but tenacious performer who, although no one wants to see, insists on doing an encore, having a return engagement, making a comeback and, worst of all, going on tour.
If you die, you're not a failure.
Luck is not an acceptable substitute for early detection.
I have an intention to live each moment fully.
I first met Rhoda Morgenstern in the spring of 1970.
Live fully in the instant.