A biography for Mariette Hartleyhasn’t been written yet.
“Success in a career sometimes comes in strange ways. You grab it in whatever way it happens.”
“When you sing, you're releasing so much more than you are when you're speaking. You risk more as a singer.”
“My life was a legacy of death and humor.”
“There are problems in Canada. There is a certain inconsistency in the acting. I don't mean to sound chauvinistic, but we do have a larger supply of good actors in Hollywood. There are good actors in Canada, but not as wide a choice.”
“I would be nowhere without my mistakes. I rely on them.”
“It's what Kitty Carlisle said in her book: Don't interview people about what they do, interview them about what they love. I want my interviews to come out of the side pockets.”
“What people don't realize is that I've been trying to get to Bethlehem since I was four years old. By that, I mean I've been trying to attain perfection since I was kid. And it took me more than 40 years to learn that it wasn't going to happen.”
“I have a real trust that where I am is where I'm supposed to be. I may not be what I want to be or what I could be, but I sure ain't what I was.”
“I really began to feel that the minute I started becoming successful, somebody would die.”
“I give as much detail as I do about the bad times because people out there don't know that others have been through hell but then through the process of amazing grace. You hope that someone out there will hear what you have to say, and that it may matter.”
“I talk only about my journey because that's all I know. That's what the audience always pulls me back to. There's a hunger out there for the spoken journey, just to share the experience, the strength, the hope.”
“I don't even consider it therapy anymore. I consider it availing myself of a guide.”
“What took some time for me to figure out was how to have a life outside my career, to find a way to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It came only after years of psychotherapy and deep soul-searching.”
“My training was in theater, and I was asked to be a journalist.”
“I'd make a terrible therapist.”
“I can't lose my spontaneity.”
“It seems to have taken me a long time to find my identity.”
“I'm impulsive, spontaneous; I have a joy in my life today that doesn't quit.”
“I'm awfully tired of playing grieving people, which seems to have been my bent in the last five years. But it's an important part of my life and if I can express it in any way, I will - including doing seminars.”
“I consider myself an articulate actor, and I don't consider myself a second-tier actor.”