"I don't like the word 'superstar'. It has ridiculous implications. These words - star, stupor, superstar, stupid star - they're misleading. It's a myth."

"It's like an American tradition. A person gets successful and then he's supposed to change for the worse. It's silly."

"I knew that with a mouth like mine, I just hadda be a star or something."

"I hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way."

"A large part of me is pure nebbish - plain, dull, uninteresting. There's a more flamboyant part, too. Obviously."

"I wish I could be like Shaw who once read a bad review of one of his plays, called the critic and said: 'I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me."

"My biggest nightmare is I'm driving home and get sick and go to hospital. I say: 'Please help me.' And the people say: 'Hey, you look like ...' And I'm dying while they're wondering whether I'm Barbra Streisand."

"I don't care what you say about me. Just be sure to spell my name wrong."

"I'm tired of malicious articles slandering me."

"I've considered having my nose fixed. But I didn't trust anyone enough. If I could do it myself with a mirror ...."

"Myths are a waste of time. They prevent progression."

"Why am I so famous? What am I doing right? What are the others doing wrong?"

"To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do - bad or good."

"I just don't want to be hampered by my own limitations."

"New York critics - I hear when one of them watched A Star Is Born, he talked back to the screen."

"Marlon Brando. The finest actor who ever lived. He was my idol when I was 13. He's done enough work to last two lifetimes. Everything I do, I think: Can Brando play this with me?"

"Bitches. It's a very male-chauvinist word. I resent it deeply. A person who's a bitch would seem to be mean for no reason. I'm not a mean person. Maybe I'm rude without being aware of it - that's possible."

"Most awards, y'know, they don't give you unless you go and get them - didja know that? Terribly discouraging."

"The audience is the best judge of anything. They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags - they're gonna cough."

"Around people I don't know, I'm totally at a loss."

"I'm so far out, I'm in."

"Women are superior to men. I don't even think we're equal."

"I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy, and driven."

"I don't enjoy public performances and being up on a stage. I don't enjoy the glamour. Like tonight, I am up on stage and my feet hurt."

"I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good."

"I don't know why it is that we need to denigrate, to knock down. It's so unhealthy for the culture. It's so sick."

"I'm not that ambitious any more. I just like my privacy. I wish I really wasn't talked about at all."

"I can't stand to see red in my profit-or-loss column. I'm Taurus the bull, so I react to red. If I see it, I sell my stocks quickly."

"I just don't like the idea of her singing my songs. Who the hell does she thinks she is? The world doesn't need another Streisand!" (on Diana Ross)"

"Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?"

"Men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work ... a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work."

"Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each slice."

 

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