Also, if you want to reach people, theatre is not always the best way to do it.

Meaning of the quote

Theatre is not always the best way to reach people. There are other ways besides theatre that can be more effective at getting your message across to a wider audience.

About Harvey Fierstein

Harvey Fierstein is an acclaimed American actor, playwright, and screenwriter known for his distinctive voice. He has won multiple Tony Awards for his work in influential plays and musicals like Torch Song Trilogy, Hairspray, and La Cage aux Folles. Fierstein’s acting credits include roles in popular films and TV shows, showcasing his versatility as a performer.

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More quotes from Harvey Fierstein

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 and playwright

Well, I always looked at Mulan as a movie about a lesbian coming out.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

I am thrilled – I can’t stress that enough – thrilled when I see kids getting active.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

There are times when I don’t take roles because I don’t want to be perceived a certain way.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

The world is full of more interesting things than my voice.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

In London they don’t like you if you’re still alive.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

How time files when you’s doin’ all the talking.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

It’s through sheer will that I can sing.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

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

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

Also, if you want to reach people, theatre is not always the best way to do it.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

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 and playwright

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

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

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

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

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 and playwright

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

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright

Political movements always belong to the young.

Harvey Fierstein

American actor and playwright