Joel Grey Quotes
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Theater is the most important thing in life for me.
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There's a civility that has always been a part of me.
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My daughter, Jennifer Grey, was in 'Dirty Dancing,' which was shot in the Catskill Mountains, where the great old Jewish entertainers used to appear. It was the first time she'd been to the Borscht Belt, and I don't think she's been back since.
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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.
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I fell so hard for the theater. I knew it was a place where you can sort out your life.
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I loved being in the theater. It was a place of enormous excitement and happiness and safety and respect and dignity. It was a place where, if you did your job, you weren't a kid - you were a full person worthy of respect from all the adults in the company.
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Being at the Play House, the only way I could see my life was that I would be an actor in a company, doing a lead role one week, a small part the next. That's what I thought I was going to be.
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When I was eight, I went to the theatre, and I remember looking at the stage afterward and pointing and saying, 'I want to do that.' I don't think that's ever changed.
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I never think about my age very much. I've always lived my life the same way, full of excitement and anticipation of wonderful things and the knowledge that some not-so-wonderful things come with it.
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I always wanted children, to be a dad. That was as important to me as being an actor.
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There is nothing I enjoy more than doing my show.
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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.
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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.
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My dad was a really funny, really talented guy who had a great success in a limited audience. But from him, I learned that he always felt the audience was entitled to 150 per cent. If he was performing at an event, he'd keep playing until the last person had finished dancing.
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I've always wanted to do, oddly enough, a live variety show, but only with a live audience.
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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.
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You are either visual or you're not.
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I came to realize, along with being attracted to girls, I had similar feelings for boys.
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I love 'Cabaret' and 'George M!' They're both incredible as far as I'm concerned.
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My grandparents from the old country, Latvia, were all musical on my father's side.
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I'm very slow. I'm a slow learner.
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I'm crazy about surprises. I love chance.
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You can be taking two steps forward as an actor, but if a movie doesn't make money, you might as well be taking two steps backwards. It's all about economics.
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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.