I don't have a great talent for explaining myself in acting because I can't explain it.
— Elaine Stritch
I can't explain chemistry. I really can't. I haven't got a clue what it's all about. It just happens. It's like falling in love. You can't explain why you fall in love or explain why it's this particular person.
You cannot tell an audience a lie. They know it before you do; before it's out of your mouth, they know it's a lie.
I don't think there's any thrill in the world like doing work you're good at.
Fear is the base of what everybody does wrong in their lives.
I have no intention of retiring. Even my blood sugar is better when I'm working.
The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.
I love reviews. Anybody who tells you they don't read reviews is a liar.
Diabetes is a lousy, lousy disease.
When I want to do something badly enough, I do it, but there is a practical side of me that thinks I should be paid fairly.
I'm a hotel baby, absolutely: it's hard to think of a hotel I haven't stayed in.
I am not influenced by other human beings. But I am inspired.
I always say, 'If you can't give a reason for the banana peel being in the alley, then don't have the comic slide over it.' Do you understand what I mean? First explain how the banana peel got there quickly. And then there's a reason for all the comedy.
Audiences are not strangers to me. They're the best friends I've got in my life.
When I'm playing comedy, it is such a crap shoot of what will work and what won't.
Why haven't I made more movies? Nobody asked me.
I have not had any of that surgical stuff. I am too curious to find out exactly how I progress every day of my life naturally. That is what fascinates me.
I don't wear a wig. I'd feel terrible onstage with a wig. I hate to be so 'Actors Studio'-ish, but I like to feel it's me out there.
As a diabetic, I'm a walking picnic. I have to eat measured amounts of food at certain times.
I do believe in the infallibility of the Pope, because I think we have to believe in something.
I never found anyone who could look after me as well as I could look after myself.
I care about money, very much. I want it. I don't ever want to be without it. My mother once said about me, 'Elaine has to have money.'
There's something that really frightens me - and that's fear.
All of the writing on '30 Rock' is a joy to go into. It's pretty hot stuff.
I don't want to see a movie twice. I don't want to do anything twice.
Certain type of actresses get younger instead of older. I always say, 'Only ingenues age.'
My movie career - if such a thing even exists - is laughable.
I tell the truth, and it has gotten me into a lot of trouble. My dad used to say to me, 'If you tell the truth all day long, you will end up in jail.'
This age thing is all up to you. It's like happiness is up to you. You just have to understand what it is before you get it.
For me, going to London is like coming home. In fact, I've often entertained the idea of ending my days there.
I think the most interesting New Yorkers are the people who were not born here.
What I want to understand is what I am talking about on the stage. What I don't want to understand is what the government is talking about when the government tells me about taxes.
I think it's the wrong way around to say, 'When you get older move to the country.' I think when you get older you move to New York.
If I see a great performance on television, onstage, in the movies, I go to work the next day with a renewed energy and less fear. These great artists take me out of my life and make me want to go there.
