Top 40 Harvey Fierstein Quotes

A child’s kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?

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.

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

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.

Nothing binds a people to their leader like a common enemy. Voters don’t change governments during war.

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.

I really am a theater person. That means you put something out there, and you let it go. Tomorrow night is a new performance.

What looks absolutely fabulous in rehearsal can fall flat in front of an audience. The audience dictates what you do or don’t change.

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.

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.

I actually pray everyday, but I don’t believe in God.

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.

A musical takes two to five years. You have to love it to put in the 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.

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.

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.

Always admit when you’re wrong. You’ll save thousands in therapy… and a few friendships too.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It’s a lot of fun to play someone you don’t normally think of yourself as.

It’s through sheer will that I can sing.

I just don’t like politics. My rule is if I can put a spotlight on something, I’ll do that.

And I believe that you never be limited in what you do, so I like to do movies, I like to do television.

Political movements always belong to the young.

You may feel powerless as a child, but the world will one day be yours. And you’re responsible for it. So, seize the day and take charge of it.

Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate.

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.

Time will tell us what we did and didn’t do.

I have the world’s worst taste in men, so now I simply have wonderful relationships of the friend kind, but trying to settle down with somebody? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m beyond that.

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.

I was exposed to a mix of cultures, lots of different religions and beliefs. I was a spiritual kid and went to Indian powwows and Buddhist temples. But over a period of time, with reading and thinking, I started to feel it was all so absurd: The whole idea of life after death is ridiculous.

I got a lovely check today from being a writer that I earned by sitting at home. That’s rewarding.

I don’t believe in the afterlife, so I do think when somebody passes, it’s worthy of note.

When I went into ‘Fiddler,’ I wondered about the response I’d get – the backlash because I’m openly gay. There was none. I toured Canada and America, and not one single review suggested that I played the role gay or that I seemed anything but Tevye.

To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky.

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.