A biography for Elaine Stritchhasn’t been written yet.
“You can't be funny unless you're tragic, and you can't be tragic unless you're funny.”
“I have not had any of that surgical stuff. I am too curious to find out exactly how I progress every day of my life naturally. That is what fascinates me.”
“I never thought about living in New York. I just thought it was great.”
“Certain type of actresses get younger instead of older. I always say, 'Only ingenues age.'”
“There will always be ladies who lunch. Always. And apparently they live a long time.”
“As a diabetic, I'm a walking picnic. I have to eat measured amounts of food at certain times.”
“There's certainly nothing lasting and definite about the theater.”
“Betty White is probably a very nice woman.”
“Diabetes is a lousy, lousy disease.”
“The people in New York - their humor is on a level that goes, uh, very deep, you know?”
“I always say, 'If you can't give a reason for the banana peel being in the alley, then don't have the comic slide over it.' Do you understand what I mean? First explain how the banana peel got there quickly. And then there's a reason for all the comedy.”
“I don't want to see a movie twice. I don't want to do anything twice.”
“I mention I'm going home, and I'm a star immediately! This used to happen with my boyfriends - as soon as I'd say, 'I gotta go home now,' they fell in love.”
“I think it's the wrong way around to say, 'When you get older move to the country.' I think when you get older you move to New York.”
“I love reviews. Anybody who tells you they don't read reviews is a liar.”
“You have to be very, very good looking to get ahead in motion pictures.”
“Honestly, this is a big thing to say, but I don't think I've ever been bored. If I even get an inkling of it, I split.”
“Let me tell you about those convents. All that crap about extending the pinkie finger while sipping tea is a myth. Convent schools are breeding grounds for great broads and occasionally one-of-the-boys. Convent schools teach you to play against everything, which is what I'm still doing.”
“I care about money, very much. I want it. I don't ever want to be without it. My mother once said about me, 'Elaine has to have money.'”
“Fear is the base of what everybody does wrong in their lives.”