Quotes from Divine

People don't even know the meaning of the word 'transvestite.'

I'm honestly very shy and quiet and to myself. Not that too much shocks me anymore.

I don't see what's shocking about a man in a dress.

I love to make Christmas cookies, chocolate chips, peanut butter cookies, pecan pies, coconut macaroons, fruitcakes.

I am a character actor and one of my characters just happens to be a loud, vulgar woman.

I was always fat and not very athletic. Finally in my junior year I went on a diet. I got down from 220 to 140. It was very funny, all of a sudden I was much more popular. I could get dates with pretty girls who had turned me down before. I was the same person! It was a learning thing for me, part of growing up. I realized it was all so artificial.

I don't live in drag... I don't sit around in negligees and I don't wear little Adolfo suits to lunch. Of course, if I had a couple of Bob Mackie outfits, things might be different.

I love having my picture taken. I love doing interviews.

I'd love to do a perlod piece. Maybe 'Caesar and Cleopatra.' I could do both roles- at one-and-a-half salaries.

As far as comfort and convenience, men have it all over the girls. A man can wear the same suit every day of the week with different shirts and ties, but a woman needs an extensive wardrobe. I can understand how women on the go wear pantsuits and slacks.

I have to work. I have a certain way of life I want to maintain.

I'm very surprised at my success as a singing star because I can't sing a lick.

As far as a man, Cary Grant is always suave and debonair and dashing. Sydney Greenstreet for a portly person, or Robert Morley. I think he always looked spiffy.

I love to eat, it's my main thing, my biggest weakness.

I collect a lot of beautiful tins from around the world, and I'll put things in them and give them as presents.

Designers do a lot of clothes I would like to wear but I can't. If it had to be made up in my size It would look ridiculous. You can't always wear what's in style. You have to realize what looks good on you.

I never wanted to emulate anyone. Oh, I loved Elizabeth Taylor, Mae West, Lucille Ball. But I never tried to copy. I always wanted to be an original.

I've been turned down for a lot of TV because they didn't think there was a place for Divine on television.

I think of myself as an actor or a personality, the personality of Divine, an entertainer.

I'm finally living the way I always thought people in New York were supposed to live. I have a bright, sun-filled lovely apartment on the 24th floor with a view of the river and the city. Most of all, I'm happy.

I am a man who happens to play women's parts. And I'm not a drag queen. I'd like to think that I'm several levels above that.

For all those people who always thought I was nothing more than a drag queen, wait until they see what I agreed to look like in 'Hairspray.'

It comes to a point where a lot of people don't know if I'm a man or a woman. I find it quite a compliment.

It's not easy being a woman. Especially when you're a part-time one. You never really get used to it.