Whoopi Goldberg Quotes

I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.

Art and life are subjective. Not everybody's gonna dig what I dig, but I reserve the right to dig it.

We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.

I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.

Normal is just a cycle on the washing machine.

It you want to be somebody, If you want to go some where, you've got to wake up and pay attention

Taking action is hard, but know what? Enduring a bad situation can be its own hell.

Her least favorite thing: VOLUNTARY IGNORANCE

My look, mind you, is not chocolate like Lauryn Hill, Whoopi Goldberg, or Naomi Campbell - it is pitch black and shimmering like the purple outer space of the universe. I am the charcoal that creates diamonds. I am the blackest black woman (41).

an actress can only play a woman,I'm an actor I can play anything

Now, I've always known that there were bullies in the world. We've seen a lot of it in politics lately as well as in daily life. You see it where people who may be stronger, or bigger, or better with verbiage than other folks... show off. To me, that's what bullying is, showing off. It's saying, I'm better than you, I can take you down. Not just physically, but emotionally.

The most important thing is that you have to listen to your truths, desires and wants. And you have to believe you deserve all of it.

I would love to teach every kid to say "fuck." Hang on, now, hang on, listen to why. The reason is because to me, that is a word that doesn't have any effect. But "stupid" and "dummy"? You can say it to someone who is six and you can say it to someone who is a hundred and six and they will hunch their shoulders and it will be like somebody kicked them in the stomach because they are harsh, ugly words.

We are all here for a reason.I believe the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people thru the darkness.

I can do anything. I can be anything. No one ever told me I couldn't. No one ever expressed this idea that I was limited to any one thing, and so I think in terms of what's possible, not impossible.

We forgive sometimes, and sometimes we don't. One thing that's consistent is, at least in the early going, we love to punish and we need to find a villian.

People have the power we give them. Words have the power we give them.

Don't you believe that the punishment should fit the crime? Isn't that what justice is? Letely, though, I wonder if we've gotten more into vengenance than justice.

Is there any forgiveness? If somebody does something wrong, we now have copped this "off with the head" attitude, which, I confess, feels great sometimes, but come on. Why do we paint everyone with the same brush? Why does it seem more & more we want people ruined rather than rehabilitated?

We have a duty tonight. Everybody, and guys this for you as well because I know you know women. You have a duty tonight. You only have to tell one other person what you heard. Just tell them what you heard, or ask them have you ever heard of this? If the answer is no, share what you learn tonight. That’s all. You don’t have to do anything else. You just have to tell somebody else. You have to take whatever stigma people think that is there. You have to take it. It’s not male or female. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with, here’s a disease you don’t know about and you need to know about it. It’s that simple. It’s not rocket science. [Whoopi Goldberg on endometriosis awareness from the 2009 Blossom Ball]

Now let me ask you a technical question. Do you have any heroes?" "I guess Whoopi Goldberg is my hero." "A family friend?" "She took care of me after my mother died," I said. Who hadn't heard of Whoopi Goldberg?

An actress can only play a woman. I'm an actor, I can play anything

Art is long, life is short.

She’d call me up and say, “I just want to say thank you. This was a perfect day.

letting other people’s opinions take your attention or energy. She thought the most important opinion was what you thought of yourself and how you lived your life.

You’ve got two choices. You can waste a lot of time complaining, or you can get up and figure out how to fix it.

It never occurred to me that somehow women did know about it. It just never occurred to me. Yes I am wearing sneakers too. You are in a suit, I am comfortable. So when she explained to me that this was the first event really of its kind, it floored me. So I called my daughter who is in her 30s now and I said “do you know what endometriosis is?” She said, “what? Have to pack the pack the busters.” I said “no man, you have never heard of it?” No she said. I do not know what it is, and it occurred to me that my 30-year-old daughter who I told about endometriosis and it didn’t stick. If she didn’t know, and she is one of the hippest people I know, and her daughter doesn’t know, she has 19-year-old and she is a 13-year-old. The boy, we don’t care much about if he knows about it so much. There is other stuff for him to learn. Like how to roll a condom, things like that. You know, and it occurred to me that if they didn’t know that there were hundreds of thousands girls out there that don’t know. It is not because their mothers don’t want to tell them, because it’s not religion, it’s pure ignorance. We don’t know, we don’t have the information, we have it now, and so now is why this very first gathering is happening. Now is why we’re all sitting here looking really fabulous as you are... [Whoopi Goldberg on endometriosis awareness from the 2009 Blossom Ball]

We take our parents with us.

Before you judge me, look in the mirror.

Every November 13, my birthday, I would have flowers sent to my mother with a card

that read: “Thanks for letting me rent the room.

I’d pick out five or ten free lectures or exhibits each week and promise her that I would attend to supplement my education. That was our

Listen, you can do anything you want to do. It’s going to take you a little bit longer. You’ll have to figure a couple of things out. But you can do that.

not represent the confines of your life. You can go and do and be whatever you want. But, whatever you choose, be yourself.

She believed in perseverance and moving forward, not standing still.

And for some reason, there seems to be no internal policeman for a bully that says maybe you're hurting somebody's feelings. Or worse, maybe you're going to push this perons too far and they'll do something terrible. Something's not processing correctly in a bully's head. It doesn't seem to occur to them that what they're doing is corssing a line that shouldn't be crossed. And it's really, in my mind, no different than taking on defenseless kids. You do it just because you can. It's an exercise in power; but it's also meant to dinsintegrate someone's Self. It's meant to take away their sense of who they are. And why? Because they're not as strong, or as bit, or as witty. Bullies are ball-less, soul-less creatures to me. And they're not just children, they're adults too. It's a terrorist act. It's meant to make you feel afraid. It's meant to make you feel powerless to take care of the situation you find yourself in.

Now let me ask you a technical question. Do you have any heroes?” “I guess Whoopi Goldberg is my hero.” “A family friend?” “She took care of me after my mother died,” I said. Who hadn’t heard of Whoopi Goldberg?

Why do you need to know that? Why can’t I tell you Santa Claus brought it? Why isn’t that enough?” She never spilled her secrets. She’d just smile, look at me sideways, and say, “It’s all magical as far as I know.

Modern, Historical and Fictional Examples: Helena Blavatsky, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Anandamayi Ma, Kahlil Gibran, Herman Melville, Paul Gaugin, Whoopie Goldberg, Alice Walker, Mattie Stepanek, Igor Stravinsky, Meryl Streep

I should not ever live with anyone, because I just don't have the patience for it. I'm very cranky around other people.

Art is long, life is short. Unless your funding is f%$ked, in which case all our days are numbered.

At the Blake Street theater, I was around creative people who gave me stage time and a chance to improvise and develop some characters.

Because my mom was open to it and encouraged it, I started going on stage around age eight at the Hudson Guild Theatre in Chelsea. The shows were performed in the auditorium of the

I had a great time, a great time.” At other times, she’d say, “I’m so appreciative that Clyde’s here with me, and you’re

I was nearby and heard one of the ladies say, “You know, Caryn’s no beauty. She’s gonna have to find a job and work.

I know my mission to give back to her everything she had given me happened while she was alive.

I’d do hair by day and work with the San Diego Rep at night, and I figured out how to get by with some food

I think that’s my new mission: to be more appreciative of my days, like my mom.

there doing what you do, and we’re staying together and doing this as a family.

She stopped walking and faced me. “Listen. I left everything. I took what I wanted. I dropped the house key into the incinerator, and I left.

You know, I was young and I thought I was doing what was expected of me. Besides, I had already agreed to it. I didn’t know what being in love should feel like. He

It’s this thing we all have to face, the death of those who knew you the best, the people in your life story. I am very lonely for my family. I get lonely for the two of them.

Listen. The confines of this neighbourhood do not represent the confines of your life. You can go and do and be whatever you want. But, whatever you choose, be yourself.

A couple of days after she died, I realized that there would be no one on this earth who loved me as much as she did. I wouldn’t put that kind of sparkle in anyone else’s

Because of my mom, I was able to go from being Caryn Johnson, the “little weird kid” from

She thought the most important opinion was what you thought of yourself and how you lived your life.

on a Monday. Then, Vinnette called my house on Tuesday. “I’m so sorry, darling,” she said. “I’ve changed my mind. I feel I have to do it this way.” I suddenly no longer had the part.

That was the first day of my ongoing friendship with Marlon Brando. When he passed away, I got a phone call that he had left me a parcel of land on his Fiji island. It really threw me

some food stamps. And that’s how I figured it out. I had other small jobs on the side, but I had to be careful because whatever I made, they would take it out of the next welfare check.

I'm much happier on my own. I can spend as much time with somebody as I want to spend, but I'm not looking to be with somebody forever or live with someone. I don't want somebody in my house.

Listen, there are going to be terrible things that happen in the world. And there’s nothing you can do about them. They are what they are. But your decision is going to have to be, ‘Do I allow those bad things to stunt my growth as a human being? Am I just going to sit down and die over it? Or am I going to try to figure out how to be better?’ Which one do you think is a waste of time?

TALIBAN-ESQUE Any behavior that imposes the beliefs of one person on everyone else. Conversations with the Taliban-esque are impossible. They aren't even conversations. WIth them, it's my way or no way.

That night Lance wants to rub his penis as he thinks of Lexi but he refrains. He doesn’t want Lexi to be a masturbatory fantasy in the tradition of Cindy Crawford, Heather Locklear, Kate Hudson and Whoopi Goldberg. No. Hell no! As a matter of fact, hellll no with marshmallows on top. Lance wants Lexi to be his special lady, everything he needs and more. Lance has a gut feeling, an irritable bowel syndrome sensation, that Lexi is his Soul Mate, the one woman God made especially for him to enjoy. Lance wonders if Lexi is allergic to hyacinths. Roses are so common.

Remember what the fashion big mouths were saying about Jessica Simpson? Looking at her magazine pictures, sucking their teeth, going, "Oh, look at her in her 'mom jeans.'" Know what? That is an unnecessarily cheap shot at her and kinda lousy to moms at the same time. Who the hell are they to say that? What gratification does it give them to be mean at someone's expense? People made nasty comments like that about President Obama. They made an issue of his jeans when he threw out the first ball at the All-Star game in St. Louis. Why? Who was he bothering? Come on. The tabloids, celebrity mags, and TV entertainment shows do fashion critiques all the time. But it's not about fashion, it's about trashin'. Their specialty is "Celebrity Cellulite!"--running unflattering pictures of stars at the beach and saying who should give up the bikini and go for the one-piece. And this is acceptable? This is a mark of journalism in a civil society, to take ambush pictures of people at the beach? And if the camera was turned around and pointed the other way, what would that look like?

You have to make sure that you tell people while they're living what they mean to you because our time on the planet goes like that, and because none of us have expiration dates on our booties, we don't know when it is. So, try to remember to tell people you love them because if they go and you haven't, you're going to regret it. And that's what I'm so glad I'm not doing.

I don't want anyone killing me with their car. Is that too much to ask? No, it's not. Then why are so many people trying to send me to my early reward with their vehicles? Truly. I can't believe some of the stunts I see pulled out there on the road. I have to say the worst behavior you see from people is when they get a steering wheel in their hands. To the point that I believe that your car is like a brain scan of your personality. If you are a polite person or just a normal, considerate, going-along-and-along-in-life person, that's pretty evident. You get a smile and a nod from me at the next stoplight. If you are easily distracted, clumsy, or kind of off in the ozone, we're going to see that too. Please try to keep it off the sidewalk. And if you are a jackass? Well, trust me, we know. We all know. And the way you carry on, we get plenty of opportunities to comfirm that. Do you think that when you get inside your car and close the door you become magically invisible? You do not. Not even with those tinted windows you think look so cool. We can see you. And it ain't pretty.

THE SPEED OF TIME VARIED, fast or slow, depending on the depth of my sleep. I became very sensitive to the taste of the water from the tap. Sometimes it was cloudy and tasted of soft minerals. Other times it was gassy and tasted like somebody’s bad breath. My favorite days were the ones that barely registered. I’d catch myself not breathing, slumped on the sofa, staring at an eddy of dust tumbling across the hardwood floor in the draft, and I’d remember that I was alive for a second, then fade back out. Achieving that state took heavy dosages of Seroquel or lithium combined with Xanax, and Ambien or trazodone, and I didn’t want to overuse those prescriptions. There was a fine mathematics for how to mete out sedation. The goal for most days was to get to a point where I could drift off easily, and come to without being startled. My thoughts were banal. My pulse was casual. Only the coffee made my heart work a bit harder. Caffeine was my exercise. It catalyzed my anxiety so that I could crash and sleep again. The movies I cycled through the most were The Fugitive, Frantic, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and Burglar. I loved Harrison Ford and Whoopi Goldberg.

In the logic of ableism, anyone who can handle such an (allegedly) horrible life must be strong; a lesser man would have given up in despair years ago. Indeed, Reeve's refusal to “give up” is precisely why the FBL selected Reeve for their model of strength; in the “billboard backstories” section of their website, they praise Reeve for trying to “beat paralysis and the spinal cord injuries” rather than “giv[ing] up.” Asserting that Goldberg is successful because of her hard work suggests that other people with dyslexia and learning disabilities who have not met with similar success have simply failed to engage in hard work; unlike Whoopi Goldberg, they are apparently unwilling to devote themselves to success. Similarly, by positioning Weihenmayer's ascent of Everest as a matter of vision, the FBL implies that most blind people, who have not ascended Everest or accomplished equivalently astounding feats, are lacking not only eyesight but vision. The disabled people populating these billboards epitomize the paradoxical figure of the supercrip: supercrips are those disabled figures favored in the media, products of either extremely low expectations (disability by definition means incompetence, so anything a disabled person does, no matter how mundane or banal, merits exaggerated praise) or extremely high expectations (disabled people must accomplish incredibly difficult, and therefore inspiring, tasks to be worthy of nondisabled attention).

If I had lied to the CIA, perhaps I might have passed a test. Instead of writing a book about the White House, I’d be poisoning a drug kingpin with a dart gun concealed inside a slightly larger dart gun, or making love to a breathy supermodel in the interest of national security. I’ll never know. I confessed to smoking pot two months before. The sunniness vanished from my interviewer’s voice. “Normally we like people who break the rules,” Skipper told me, “but we can’t consider anyone who’s used illegal substances in the past twelve months.” Just like that, my career as a terrorist hunter was over. I thought my yearning for higher purpose would vanish with my CIA dreams, the way a Styrofoam container follows last night’s Chinese food into the trash. To my surprise, it stuck around. In the weeks that followed, I pictured myself in all sorts of identities: hipster, world traveler, banker, white guy who plays blues guitar. But these personas were like jeans a half size too small. Trying them on gave me an uncomfortable gut feeling and put my flaws on full display. My search for replacement selves began in November. By New Year’s Eve I was mired in the kind of existential funk that leads people to find Jesus, or the Paleo diet, or Ayn Rand. Instead, on January 3, I found a candidate. I was on an airplane when I discovered him, preparing for our initial descent into JFK. This was during the early days of live in-flight television, and I was halfway between the Home Shopping Network and one of the lesser ESPNs when I stumbled across coverage of a campaign rally in Iowa. Apparently, a caucus had just finished. Speeches were about to begin. With nothing better to occupy my time, I confirmed that my seat belt was fully fastened. I made sure my tray table was locked. Then, with the arena shrunk to fit my tiny seatback screen, I watched a two-inch-tall guy declare victory. It’s not like I hadn’t heard about Barack Obama. I had heard his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention. His presidential campaign had energized my more earnest friends. But I was far too mature to take them seriously. They supported someone with the middle name Hussein to be president of the United States. While they were at it, why not cast a ballot for the Tooth Fairy? Why not nominate Whoopi Goldberg for pope?

Money in the bank is love in the heart.

Money in the bank (The man with), is love in the heart (of women).

The man with money in the bank is love in the heart (of women).

The man with money in the bank is love in the heart (of women).

I had always coveted darker-skinned women their color. There was a mystery to their beauty that I found hypnotizing, Siren-like. They were hardly ever in Jet or Ebony or Essence, the magazines we subscribed to, unless they themselves were famous—the mom from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Whoopi Goldberg, Jackie Joyner, Oprah. Most of the Black women the public pronounced beautiful looked like Mama. Black Barbies. Bright. Hair wavier than curly. Petite figures.

I'm always right.

Are you allergic to cats? Are you allergic to dogs? Does cigarette smoke bother you? Does marijuana smoke bother you? Do orgies bother you? Be a good hostess. This is good behavior that makes everybody happy.

You are a flea on the ass of a mosquito on Derek Jeter's jersey. That's what you are.

Whoopi Goldberg is gifted with the essence of challenging simulation, which is what theatre demands from life. Her dialogue spells a confidence you’d expect from reinvented protocols lined up in sequence of selective elocution. Where she dares, the winds of protean vagaries fear.

Around age sixteen, I became dependent on drugs to make

me feel good. It’s no secret how that kind of shit ends.

I got into drug rehab and that got me into my first marriage. At age eighteen, I married my drug counselor. He was a great guy, and getting married made sense to me at the time, even though I remember my mom asking me, “Are you sure this is something you want to go through with?

I know Marlon left you a part of the island, but we’d like to ask you to give it back because if everybody keeps theirs, there won’t be an island left.

other things. You just have to keep at it.” I got to learn this knockdown lesson years before I started a film career, so it was good in the long run.

One day he said to me, “I’ve got a son about the same age as your daughter. Would you ever consider moving to the West Coast? To California?

seemed to be in love with me, so I didn’t question it. A year later my mom was dropping me off at the hospital to give birth to my daughter. In the ’70s, you had to go into the delivery room

on your own—just you, some nurses, and the doctor.

She said, “Well, you should take one of the names from

told them that I understood and that I wanted to have it go back to Marlon’s family.

I remember her riding her electric bicycle off to her college graduation, her gown billowing out behind her. I don’t know why she didn’t want Clyde and me there, but that was how she was. She never wanted to interrupt anybody else’s day.

She didn’t expect God to drop in and rescue us or think that we got to blame him for whatever mess humans get themselves into. Her attitude was if you believe in God, then you have to believe that God is really smart and made us smart enough to know how to maneuver through this life.

but I had no idea what steps had to happen to make that a job. Nobody gave me any information on how to break through into a career, and I would just audition when parts were available.

nearby community service center, so I could get myself there and back home. It’s about all I really loved doing.

As a young teenager, I auditioned for a part in a play directed by Vinnette Carroll, who was the first black woman to direct a play on Broadway. She was also a

There will be something else for you. You weren’t expecting this, but there will be

deal, and I stuck to it for a couple of years.

our cross-country drive, it started to seem like a crazy idea. But like my mom always taught me, I had to live with my choice. From the time I left high school, I only wanted to act,

stamps and about thirty welfare bucks a week.

Some people at the Rep called me Whoopi because I would sometimes let loose with a fart.

You know, before my nomination in 1985, there were only fifteen black nominees in the history of

the Academy Awards, and only three black winners: Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, and Lou Gossett Jr. That’s it. And that didn’t bother a whole lot of folks in Hollywood.