Gypsy Rose Lee Quotes

Don't compare her to sunshine and roses when she's clearly orchids and moonlight.

I used to come home at night full of inspiration, and sit up with a bottle of Scotch. As I wrote, the words seemed wonderful, just too wonderful to be coming from me. Next morning I always found they were terrible and I could never use anything I wrote.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly... very slowly.

Praying is like a rocking chair - it'll give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere.

Mother was,' June thought, 'a beautiful little ornament that was damaged.' Her broken edges cut her daughters in ways both emotional and physical, and only sharpened with age.

I am a wildflower in your perfect bed of roses.

Kiss her gypsy soul and love her for the wild rose she is.

Her mother was by turns tender and pathetic and terrifying, broken in a way that no one, in that time or place, had any idea how to fix.

Well, just remember this. When my ma got me, she picked what she wanted. But when your ma got you, she had to take what she got.

If you're afraid of the thorn, you truly don't deserve the rose.

She’s not particularly fond of red roses; too common, unoriginal, everyday-ish, but give her the rare rose, black or blue, to complement her melancholy spirit and dark soul and she lights up like the brightest star on the darkest night.

He was just a taker. She was a taker in her way too. They were taking each other, and they loved each other for that. -June Havoc

Night time You’ll find her there Blooming Like a night rose.

And truth is malleable, something to be bent or stretched or made to disappear, but direct lies always find the path back to the one who tells them.

He spent all of his twenty-three years operating at only one speed and in one direction, furious and forward, convinced that a collision could only improve the ride.

She’s far from ordinary; she’s a rare breed, a black rose, a deep soul, a gypsy heart, a bright star. Or you could simply say, she’s magic.

he insisted, since he’d earned something more useful than a GED—a GE, his “gutter education.” He

It was a fairy tale, Hovick style, in which drama trumped veracity and the women always won. On

Big Lady, Rose, Louise, and June knew nothing of their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. “Of course, he was only a man,” June said, “so it didn’t much matter.” Big

Start thinkin’ about what you’re goin’ to be tomorrow—not what you were yesterday.” For

discover what could make you famous, and then proclaim that it already has.

pausing to consider your place meant you were already far behind.

The only time I’d ever marry again is if someone beat on my door and said, “I have $27 million and I’ll live elsewhere.” –JOAN BLONDELL On

Of all the theaters I miss from the 1950’s and before, the Hudson Theatre tops the list. It was built in what was then called Union Hill, early in December 1907. It was actually known as “The Hudson Burlesque,” and it featured striptease artists such as Lili St. Cyr, Gypsy Rose Lee and Tempest Storm. Being too young to get into the theatre on my own, I usually offered an adult standing in line some money to take me in. Once inside, I would head for the front of the theatre to the fire exit on the right side of the orchestra seating. It was all prearranged with my friends waiting outside! With one kick, the door would open, allowing them to come streaming in. There were not enough ushers to catch us all, so some of us would invariably be caught and evicted; only to try and gain access again. It was all great fun! Its demise came in 1957 after the theatre owners took out the comedy acts and replaced them with more featured strippers. Society balked, arrests were made and the curtain came down!

Sweet? Submissive? May as well be a housewife … it dims my luster, makes me resemble others—that’s the worst thing that could happen.

The Hudson Burlesque Of all the theaters I miss from that era, the Hudson Theatre tops the list. It was built in what was then called Union Hill, early in December 1907. We called it the Hudson Burlesque, and it featured striptease artists such as Lili St. Cyr, Gypsy Rose Lee and Tempest Storm. Being too young to get into the theatre on my own, I usually offered an adult standing in line some money to take me in. Once inside, I would head for the front of the theatre to the fire exit on the right side of the orchestra seating. It was all prearranged with my friends waiting outside! With one kick, the door would open, allowing them to come streaming in. There were not enough ushers to catch us all, so some of us would invariably be caught and evicted, only to try to gain access again. It was all great fun! “I don't think there is such a thing as being too raunchy when it comes to the art form of burlesque.” Christina Aguilera, American singer-songwriter and actress. From the upcoming book “Seawater One.

by a new burlesque trick: fish swivels affixed to her pasties. The mechanism allowed Finnell to pinwheel her tassels in any direction, from any position, at any speed,

Later, the sisters would remember things differently, as sisters do, old grudges and misunderstandings refracting each memory, bending them in opposite directions.