Quotes from Harvey Fierstein

When things get too good... I get out. Well. I guess to a degree we all do. But most pull out; ride off into the sunset with a wave and a wink and a "Heigh-o-Silver." But not me. I am a pusher. I nudge and kvetch and cry and demand until I leave my partner no possible alternative but for him to run for his life. (...)

The jockey never recalls using a whip. The horse never forgets.

There is a red line of intimacy that's been crossed. Exes know things about each other that friends never could. You've altered each other's emotional DNA. You can be friendly with an ex, but exes cannot be friends.

You can't camp about something you don't take seriously. You're not making fun of it. You're making fun out of it.

Twelve Step programs counsel "Look back, but don't stare." Wonder why? Because it's fucking painful!

Funny how that is. The jockey never recalls using a whip. The horse never forgets

I do believe we're all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other. Harvey Fierstein

nothing changes when you say no, so say yes and let the world know you're open to possibility.

Did I mention the gold piercing of a snake he had through the head of his penis? I'd never seen one before. I asked what you were supposed to do with it. And he said, "Start by making friends.

My play Safe Sex was picked apart because critics thought it was untrue. It was a play in which no one had AIDS, but the characters talked about how it was going to change their lives.

So, did I work with Warhol? I worked with him less on that play then I did on other things. He actually did a portrait of my rabbit and some other stuff. Warhol was definitely... Warhol.

A child's kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?

Pork was in 1971, and I stopped hanging out at The Factory by like 1973.

State-sanctioned marriage is a civil contract, period. A contract is not a judgment of moral value. It is a legal agreement between two parties that testifies to a meeting of minds between those consenting entities. It is not a religious act or rite and so has nothing to do with Adam and Eve or Steve or even Harvey.

How often are the perpetrators of hate-crimes discovered to be self-loathing? Valued individuals do not strike out against strangers.

To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky.

I actually may do a musical next year... not one that I've written; one that I may star in. Plus my concert and other people's work and all of a sudden you've got a very full life.

I have to work really hard, eight shows a week, to get a nice check as an actor. But when I write a play, and it's a - knock wood - hit, the checks come in for many years.

While we dance in the streets and pat ourselves on the back for being a nation great enough to reach beyond racial divides to elect our first African-American president, let us not forget that we remain a nation still proudly practicing prejudice.

Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate.

A thing of beauty is a joy till sunrise.

If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?

And I believe that you never be limited in what you do, so I like to do movies, I like to do television.

In London they don't like you if you're still alive.