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Home
Authors
Harvey Fierstein
American
Actor
About the author
Time will tell us what we did and didn't do.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Time
#Will
It's through sheer will that I can sing.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Will
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Play
#Thought
#Change
#Sex
Political movements always belong to the young.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Life
#Silence
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Work
#Play
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Now
#Chance
#Suicide
You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theatre 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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Life
#Love
#Theatre
There are times when I don't take roles because I don't want to be perceived a certain way.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Want
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Right
#Now
#Youth
#Gay
To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Time
#Work
Well, I always looked at Mulan as a movie about a lesbian coming out.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Lesbian
What looks absolutely fabulous in rehearsal can fall flat in front of an audience. The audience dictates what you do or don't change.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Change
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Time
#People
#May
#Old
#Help
#Voice
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Character
#Actor
#Personality
#Romantic
It's a lot of fun to play someone you don't normally think of yourself as.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Fun
#Play
The world is full of more interesting things than my voice.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#World
#Voice
Also, if you want to reach people, theatre is not always the best way to do it.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Want
#People
#Theatre
Pork was in 1971, and I stopped hanging out at The Factory by like 1973.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
Actually, I think the average voice is like 70 percent tone and 30 percent noise. My voice is 95 percent noise.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Voice
And I believe that you never be limited in what you do, so I like to do movies, I like to do television.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Movies
#Television
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Songs
#Right
#Key
#Voice
#Yesterday
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Songs
#Will
#Play
#Idea
#Song
How time files when you's doin' all the talking.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Time
#Talking
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Life
#People
#Work
#May
I actually pray everyday, but I don't believe in God.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#God
In London they don't like you if you're still alive.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#London
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!
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#People
#Work
#Years
#Disease
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#World
#Power
#Positive
#Energy
#Care
#Prayer
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Time
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Pretty
#Song
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Diversity
If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Life
#Commitment
A child's kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Magic
#Kiss
I am thrilled - I can't stress that enough - thrilled when I see kids getting active.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Kids
#Stress
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.
Harvey Fierstein,
American
Actor
#Character
#Failure
#Song
#Colors