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Harvey Fierstein Quotes

Powerful Harvey Fierstein for Daily Growth

I have great faith in the United States. It's the only country I would ever live in.

- Harvey Fierstein

Country, United States, Only Country

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

- Harvey Fierstein

Leader, Like, Binds, Common Enemy

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

Song, Some, Always, Introduce

When a politician like Marco Rubio is willing to sacrifice his career defining immigration reform legislation solely to insure that gays and lesbians are denied equal protection under the law, we have to admit that we're under attack. This is not pragmatic politics at work. These are the policies of bias, exclusion and unfairness.

- Harvey Fierstein

Politics, Career, Lesbians, Defining

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

Life, Made, Allow, Victim

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.

- Harvey Fierstein

News, Stories, Cameraman, Capturing

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.

- Harvey Fierstein

Role, About, Backlash, Suggested

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

Positive, Other, Putting, Energy

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

Voice, Two, Use, Key

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

Next, Other, Very, Full Life

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.

- Harvey Fierstein

Will, Charge, May, Powerless

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

- Harvey Fierstein

Art, Inspire, Transform, Motivate

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

- Harvey Fierstein

Play, Think, Lot, Normally

I often say that if you want to really want to understand the contract of marriage, just ask anyone who has been divorced. The marriage contract is one of property rights. Or maybe you can look in the Bible to see what Adam had to say about divorce, since Eve was his second wife.

- Harvey Fierstein

Been, Maybe, About, Divorced

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.

- Harvey Fierstein

Death, Kid, Idea, Mix

While we dance in the streets and pat ourselves on the back for being a nation great enough to reach beyond racial divides to elect our first African-American president, let us not forget that we remain a nation still proudly practicing prejudice.

- Harvey Fierstein

Reach, Nation, Streets, Divides

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.

- Harvey Fierstein

Measured, Before, Very, Shoots

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.

- Harvey Fierstein

Love, Doing, Week, Six Days

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

- Harvey Fierstein

Lovely, Check, Rewarding, Sitting

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

- Harvey Fierstein

God, Believe, Actually, Everyday

I have to work really hard, eight shows a week, to get a nice check as an actor. But when I write a play, and it's a - knock wood - hit, the checks come in for many years.

- Harvey Fierstein

Play, Week, Knock, Wood

My father was brought up in an orphanage in the Catskills. He was a factory worker. And because his family wasn't there for him, family was everything. We could disagree inside the house, but outside the house it was us against the world. So when I became a drag actor, he looked sideways but said okay.

- Harvey Fierstein

Against, Became, Brought, Drag

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

Doing, Movie, Broadway, Hairspray

Theater is my temple and my religion and my act of faith. Strangers sit in a room together and believe together.

- Harvey Fierstein

Temple, Act, Theater, Sit

I am thrilled - I can't stress that enough - thrilled when I see kids getting active.

- Harvey Fierstein

Stress, Active, I See, Thrilled

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

- Harvey Fierstein

Movie, Always, Looked, Lesbian

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.

- Harvey Fierstein

Moral, Two, Religious, Harvey

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

Thought, Play, Which, Apart

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

Right, Then, Heterosexual, Agenda

As soon as I started writing, other writers stopped wanting me acting in their shows - maybe they thought I was going to rewrite them.

- Harvey Fierstein

Other, Wanting, Stopped, Rewrite

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