Quotes

I don't like my voice that much. I think I'm a much better actress than singer. Singing is like going to a party at someone else's house. Acting is like having the party at your own house. When you go to someone else's house for a party, it's not your responsibility at all, but when you have the party at your own house, there's a lot of responsibility. Everyone has to have a good time. So for me, acting is deeper.

In this business, you have to be tough, and if someone pushes me really far, I can certainly be impossible. I've always said, "If you're nice, they walk over you, and if you stand up for yourself, they call you a bitch.".

I'm not a role model, nor have I ever tried to be a role model. The only thing about me as a role model is I've managed to stay here and be working and survive. For 40 years.

I'm like a bumper car. When I did an infomercial I was fodder for every TV comedy show. I couldn't get a job. People said I was a huge joke. I've been a joke so many times. I've been on my way out since I started, but I'm strong-willed. My mother is so much tougher than I am and my grandmother is so much tougher than my mother.

I haven't a clue why I've lasted so long. There's no reason. There are many people more talented than me. I think it's luck.

[People magazine, 9/1/85] I was a shy ugly kid who led a big fantasy life. I thought I was an angel sent from heaven, to cure polio. When Dr. Salk [Jonas Salk] did that I was really pissed off.

The trouble with some women, they get all excited about nothing - and then they marry him.

The only grounds for divorce in California are marriage.

[on friendship] I can trust my friends... these people force me to examine myself, encourage me to grow.

[on truth] Honesty makes me feel powerful in a difficult world.

[on spirit] Women, unlike most men, are able to accept mystery, accept whatever comes to them -- even if it's not logical.

[on Meryl Streep] She's an acting machine in the same sense that a shark is a killing machine. That's what she was born to be.

I think men are fun and nice, but I don't think they're necessary to live. Chastity has a nice father, I think Sonny is a decent father. Elijah's father is absolutely useless. He's not worthwhile at all. He hasn't called Elijah in two years.

Men aren't necessities, they're luxuries.

[on Madonna] I never hated her, I just thought she was a bitch. Actually, I quite respect her. Actually, I think Madge might be one of the most amazing artists I've known. I don't like everything she does, for sure, but she is always riding the crest of the wave. She always saw trends WAY before anyone else, and had great videos.

I love ghosts, I prefer ghosts to some people.

I don't think of myself as a singer. I don't have that kind of confidence. I want to put on a show. I want to dazzle people. For me, everything goes through my eyes first. Even when I did 'The Star Spangled Banner' I was wondering : What should I wear?

[on why she dates younger men] Older men rarely liked me. If it wasn't for younger men, I would never have a date.

[on Warren Beatty] Warren has probably been with everybody I know, and unfortunately I am one of them. But since I was only 16 maybe I can get out of it with that. I don't know if I was a bimbo then, but I had pretty low self-esteem.

It mystifies me that people would care what I do to my body... Just because you become famous shouldn't deter you from doing what you want with your life.

[on her debut single, "Ringo I Love You"] I sounded too much like a boy. Everyone thought it was a faggot song.

[her reaction to Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election] It's like there's a death in my family.

[on her relationship with her transgender son] We're in the best place we've ever been since she was young. And I have to say 'she' because Chastity was a 'she' then and I have to make the distinction with Chaz as he is now. But it's starting to be nice because we're creating memories now and we've actually had the most fun together lately than we've had in forever.

[on if she had a hard time on Chaz's gender change] Oh yes, I had a hard time. I didn't have a hard time in the beginning when Chaz came to see me and told me, 'This is what I want to do.' I said, 'Well, if you're miserable, then you've got to do it.' But then as it was starting to happen, you know, it's a strange change for a mother to go through.

[on her support for the Armenian Genocide epic The Promise (2016)] Adolf Hitler said 'If they don't remember the Armenians, they won't remember the Jews'. We cannot let this happen to another group of people.

[before singing "We All Sleep Alone" at a June 3, 1989 concert] I just broke up with my boyfriend, so this next song is particularly meaningful to me.

[on Bill Maher] Fuck him.

I've worked my whole life to keep my strength in my body. There are 20-year-old girls who can't do what I do.

[on Donald Trump] I hate to even call him a president because all he does is watch TV.

People who just disagreed with each other before are now enemies.

[on being snubbed by the Academy for Mask (1985)] I should've gotten nominated. But at the time, I dressed too strange, my boyfriends were too young... they had all kinds of ideas about why I wasn't right.