Carol Channing

“I just never had time to follow sports. When you're working as often as I was, eight shows a week, you just don't have time to develop interests outside of the theatre.”

“I felt like jumping out a window when I heard Streisand was doing it. I'd played it four and a half years - I thought Dolly was mine. But after the initial shock wore off, I realized no great part is ever exclusively anybody's.”

“I kept thinking that the audience had gone to so much trouble, working their schedules to be there. They had arranged for babysitters and even traveled in from out of town. Oh, how could I not be there for them?”

“You know, if you're lucky enough to have two smash hit shows, the traffic of the world goes through your dressing room.”

“If I talk about something I either talk about it or I DO it... the minute I talk about it it's lost all it's drive and all it's fun.”

“I can't remember if I had any stage fright at the first Bowl. But I did the second time.”

“I've gone on in a wheelchair. Another performance I did with no voice - and I had to apologize to the audience and whisper.”

“Regret leads to negativity, and negativity kills creativity.”

“Laughter is much more important than applause. Applause is almost a duty. Laughter is a reward.”

“At first I felt terrible, then I realized... that no matter what I do the rest of my life... I'll never do anything as distinguished as getting on Nixon's enemy list.”

“I've never understood the use of vulgar language, but the definition of 'risque' is open to interpretation. I suppose I did many things in my shows that could be considered risque... at the time... right up until my 90s.”

“He wrote himself into the role of Dolly. Dolly was hilariously funny and didn't know it. And that's what Thornton Wilder was. He was an adorable man.”

“I am finally a lady of leisure, and it suits me fine. For the first time in almost 10 decades, I don't have an agenda or a structure to my days.”

“The distinction between male and female will never stop existing. We are not alike, and I wouldn't want to be.”

“My clothes are an extension of my personality. I'd look awful in ladylike dresses.”

“I can't understand people missing a show because they're sick: They've missed their best performance. You have an obstacle to overcome, and you reach for the heavens, and, doggone it, the heavens answer you.”

“I still meet with friends, and I'm enjoying life at 97 here in Palm Springs. They are trying to establish a new theater here in the desert, and if they raise enough money, I understand they might be calling it The Carol Channing Playhouse. Wouldn't that be wonderful? What an honor that would be.”

“It's a terrible thing to admit, but I'm not sure I know what Women's Lib is.”

“I don't hate Charles. I just want my life to count for something. Everyone thinks I just walked out on a paralyzed man. But after he had his stroke, he couldn't hang on to me. And I realized for the first time that I was at peace.”

“You just have to stick to it beyond all reason and all sanity; you just keep at it. You have to believe that you've got to be in the theater.”