Quotes
 I got the regular call, that they were doing a Broadway musical of Hairspray, and would I come and audition. I was familiar with the movie, because at the time it came out my lover wrote for Premiere magazine, and we had to see everything. Actually, I think the average voice is like 70 percent tone and 30 percent noise. My voice is 95 percent noise.
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But actually just yesterday we raised the key of one of my songs two steps up, so my voice is obviously responding. It`s a muscle, and the more you use it, the more you use it right, the more you should get out of it. So yes, I sing.
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Political movements always belong to the young.
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In Torch Song, I did that character almost non-stop from 1978 until I made the movie in 1987. Then I had some failure, which also colors how you react to doing other things.
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It would be nice to redefine ourselves - at the moment we are drowning in diversity. That`s not a bad thing, its just going to take a while before we refocus.
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What looks absolutely fabulous in rehearsal can fall flat in front of an audience. The audience dictates what you do or don`t change.
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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.
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A child`s kiss is magic. Why else would they be so stingy with them?
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I don`t believe we need to take millions and millions of dollars and build churches and stuff... I think we could build houses instead.
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Beware of anyone who says they know. Trust me, they don`t, or they wouldn`t have to say they did.
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Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one`s definition of your life; define yourself.
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I`m sure there`s going to be some material from This Is Not Going To Be Pretty. I usually use that song to just introduce myself to the audience, although the patter in between the song is always different.
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Well, I always looked at Mulan as a movie about a lesbian coming out.
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It`s through sheer will that I can sing.
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It`s a lot of fun to play someone you don`t normally think of yourself as.
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In London they don`t like you if you`re still alive.
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But I`m not adverse to the idea of Torch Song as a musical. It would just be different. Because the play will always be there exactly as it was, and in a musical you could tell a lot of the story through songs.
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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.
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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.
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The world is full of more interesting things than my voice.
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I am thrilled - I can`t stress that enough - thrilled when I see kids getting active.
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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.
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You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theatre because it is an unmerciful life. It`s six days a week. It`s eight performances a week. And that`s doing the exact same thing over and over and over again.
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Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one`s definition of your life; define yourself.
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I burned out on AIDS and did no AIDS work for a couple of years. I was so angry that people were still getting this disease that nobody can give you - you have to go out and get it!
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You know, I always got offered other stuff. Not the romantic leads, obviously. But very often it`s a role that`s underwritten, where the character has no personality at all. And they need a character actor who can fill it in.
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Also, if you want to reach people, theatre is not always the best way to do it.
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To me, if a heterosexual has a right to do it, then I have a right to do it. And if it`s important to the gay youth - who are now setting the agenda - then its important to me.
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If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?
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How time files when you`s doin` all the talking.
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Last season, there were 27 gay roles on television - and not one was played by a gay person. So I`m a little sensitive to that stuff.
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Pork was in 1971, and I stopped hanging out at The Factory by like 1973.
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Always admit when you`re wrong. You`ll save thousands in therapy...and a few friendships too.
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The great thing about suicide is that it`s not one of those things you have to do now or you lose your chance. I mean, you can always do it later.
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The great thing about suicide is that it`s not one of those things you have to do now or you lose your chance. I mean, you can always do it later.
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When I write stuff and I help cast it, I turn away good people all the time. I may turn them down because this one`s too tall and that one doesn`t have a high enough voice or this one looks to old to match up with that one - there`s a billion reasons not to hire somebody.
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There are times when I don`t take roles because I don`t want to be perceived a certain way.
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Time will tell us what we did and didn`t do.
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In this Duplex picture it`s a role where it looks like I have nothing to do with the plot, and then there`s a twist, so it`s fun.
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To work all the time is to be incredibly lucky.
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I actually pray everyday, but I don`t believe in God.
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And I believe that you never be limited in what you do, so I like to do movies, I like to do television.
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Trivia
2000 - Won the Humanitas Prize in the Children's Animation Category for: "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child" (1995) for episode "The Sissy Duckling".
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Was known only for playing drag roles Off-Off Broadway (often in plays he wrote himself) until he played his first male role in Robert Patrick III's "The Haunted Host" in Boston. The play was such a personal success for him that when he had to leave the show for four days for his father's funeral, the show closed.
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Won Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical at the 2003 Tony Awards for his role in the play "Hairspay".
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In the 2003 New York City Thanksgiving Day Parade, he was Mrs. Claus, dressed in drag.
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The essence of Fierstein's landmark "Torch Song Trilogy" (1988) was autobiographical, since he began performing as a drag queen in Manhattan clubs as early as age 15.
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Has won four Tony Awards from only four nominations: two in 1983, as Best Actor (Play) and Author of Best Play for "Torch Song Trilogy," a performance he recreated in the film version of the same title, Torch Song Trilogy (1988); a third in 1984, the Book (Musical) Tony for writing the libretto of "La Cage aux Folles;" and the fourth in 2003, as Best Actor (Musical) in the Divine role of Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray." These four awards tie him with Tommy Tune for the most Tony Awards in different categories.
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With his Tony Award win for "Hairspray", along with his three previous wins, he ties with Tommy Tune for most Tony Awards for different categories.
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Following a severe bout of depression following the break up with a lover, Fierstein wrote about the painful experience and the end result was "The International Stud", which was produced at the Theater for the New City in 1976 (later at La MaMa in 1978) with Fierstein introducing and starring as his Arnold Beckoff character, a gay man whose bisexual lover dumps him for a female. Fierstein went on to write two more plays about Arnold and introduced "Fugue in a Nursery" and "Widows and Children First!", in 1979 at La MaMa, with Fierstein again playing the lead. Eventually Fierstein integrated the three Arnold plays into a single play, "Torch Song Trilogy", which was first presented off-off-Broadway in 1981, and the rest is history.
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1994 - Won a GLAAD Award for Visibility category.
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