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Joel Grey Quotes

Powerful Joel Grey for Daily Growth

Acting always affects every part of your life because it's such a solitary, lonely, and thrilling circumstance that you're taking on someone else's character and that responsibility. It's exhausting.

- Joel Grey

Always, Part, Affects, Thrilling

When my father came out on stage wearing a big cowboy hat and a shirt lettered 'Bar Mitzvah Ranch' to sing 'Home on the Range' in Yiddish, it was his way of saying, 'I want to be an American.'

- Joel Grey

Father, Big, Range, Yiddish

I never learned to speak Yiddish, ever.

- Joel Grey

Never, Ever, Learned, Yiddish

The Yiddish language is so rich and unusual that I've always been hooked on its sounds, although I don't speak it.

- Joel Grey

Rich, Always, Been, Yiddish

My father was Mickey Katz, who worked with Spike Jones and then went on to improvise some successful Yiddish parodies, some of which I perform. My favorite was 'Geshray of the Vilde Kotchke,' his version of 'Cry of the Wild Goose.'

- Joel Grey

Father, Some, Goose, Yiddish

I did a benefit one night at Carnegie Hall with Bono and Lady Gaga and Rufus Wainwright.

- Joel Grey

Night, One Night, Gaga, Bono

I was already in my early twenties, but I looked much younger because I was fresh-faced and, well, short. So I did songs such as 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah' and jokes such as describing current events as 'ancient history.' Boy, did the audience roar at that one.

- Joel Grey

Boy, Current, Describing, Current Events

I don't like to bad-mouth other shows, but I was very disturbed after seeing 'Starlight Express.' It had very little to do with musical comedy as I know it. It had to do with sound and spectacle and records and technology and amplification.

- Joel Grey

Other, Very, Spectacle, Musical Comedy

Larry Hagman and I are very old friends.

- Joel Grey

Old, Very, Larry Hagman, Larry

I'm about possibilities and about surprises and the life force.

- Joel Grey

Possibilities, Force, About, Surprises

I'm crazy about surprises. I love chance.

- Joel Grey

Love, Chance, I Love, Surprises

I worked with a lot of leading ladies: Bebe Neuwirth, Anne Rankin, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli. They're all phenomenal talents.

- Joel Grey

Leading, Anne, Lot, Phenomenal

I've always wanted to do, oddly enough, a live variety show, but only with a live audience.

- Joel Grey

Audience, Always, Wanted, Live Audience

Satisfying as that 'Cabaret' role was, it is not the only thing I do. But Hollywood is somewhat limited in its perspective about what it is you do or don't do.

- Joel Grey

Hollywood, Role, Cabaret, Satisfying

It can take me forever to choose the right coffee cup in the morning. And it does make a difference!

- Joel Grey

Coffee, Take, Does, Make A Difference

I wasn't sure what it would take to make it in the theater, but despite the struggle, that was all I ever really wanted.

- Joel Grey

Sure, Despite, Really, Struggle

A lot of people have problems thinking of you doing more than one thing. If you do one thing, then you couldn't possibly do another thing well. Of course, we know that's not so.

- Joel Grey

Doing, More, Another, Possibly

I used to eat Danny Kaye's food. I had his Chinese and Italian meals, and that was as good as it gets.

- Joel Grey

Used, Italian, Had, Danny

I love that moment just before the curtain goes up, whether I'm sitting in the audience or standing backstage. It's full of expectation. It's a thrill that's unequaled anywhere.

- Joel Grey

Love, Audience, Before, Curtain

The subject matter of the show, 'Cabaret,' was more than risky. And the emcee I would be playing didn't have a single line of dialogue. Still, it was full of possibilities, and it was mine.

- Joel Grey

Possibilities, Still, Mine, Risky

I had begun my professional career when I was 9 years old at the Cleveland Play House, and it was a very specific, real theater sort of like, you know, in England and the Berliner Ensemble - very devoted people. And I thought the theater was the greatest place I had ever been, and that's what I wanted to do.

- Joel Grey

Play, Career, Very, Cleveland

I was so successful in Cleveland, and we moved to Los Angeles, and there was nothing for me to do. All of a sudden, from being a success, I was a has-been at 13.

- Joel Grey

Angeles, Has-Been, Moved, Cleveland

For me to take a role, I read a script, and I think, 'Wow, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I want to try.'

- Joel Grey

Think, Role, I Think, Wow

I was accepted to UCLA, but at the same time, I had a job offer at Chicago's Chez Paree nightclub. My father, being a practical man, felt I should take the job.

- Joel Grey

Father, Nightclub, Practical, UCLA

My mother loved fashion. She was a beauty and had enough sewing skills that she could re-create the looks in magazines. She also was enormously charismatic.

- Joel Grey

Beauty, Had Enough, Could, Charismatic

That's what people forget about, is that when things are very, very powerful in a sad way, they have that possibility of also being over-the-top, hysterically funny.

- Joel Grey

Very, About, Over-The-Top, Possibility

My dad would take me downtown, and I'd stand backstage and watch him in the vaudeville pit band. I was 6 or 7. He was a musician, a band leader, a wonderful clarinetist and saxophone player.

- Joel Grey

Leader, Saxophone, Dad, Backstage

My father was the one who used to stand up in the middle of a number to flutter his lips and make sputtering sounds into lyrics.

- Joel Grey

Father, Middle, Used, Lyrics

I'm very slow. I'm a slow learner.

- Joel Grey

Slow, Very, Learner

Collaboration is about listening to someone else and adding your own feelings about that thought.

- Joel Grey

Listening, Thought, Someone, Feelings

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