“I was born at the age of twelve on an MGM lot.”

I’m the original take-orders girl.

How strange when an illusion dies. It’s as though you’ve lost a child.

I’ve seen the ticket, and I still can’t believe it. When I see the money, I hope I don’t hit the floor.

If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?

I was born in a lovely white house with a garden.

I try to bring the audience’s own drama – tears and laughter they know about – to them.

To let a fool kiss you is bad. To let a kiss fool you is worse. ‘Twas not my lips you kissed but my soul.

We cast away priceless time in dreams, born of imagination, fed upon illusion, and put to death by reality.

I can live without money, but I cannot live without love.

I’ve always taken ‘The Wizard of Oz’ very seriously, you know. I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I’ve spent my entire life trying to get over it.

Give the people what they want and then go have a hamburger.

When I die I have visions of fags singing ‘Over the Rainbow’ and the flag at Fire Island being flown at half mast.

People en masse have always been wonderful to me. I truly have a great love for an audience. I want to give them two hours of just pow.

Audiences have kept me alive.

When you have lived the life I’ve lived, when you’ve loved and suffered, and been madly happy and desperately sad — well, that’s when you realize you’ll never be able to set it all down. Maybe you’d rather die first.

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.

My parents were journalists and friends with writers, artists, and just a really interesting assortment of people, so I was exposed to all lifestyles from a young age.

Can you picture yourself at the age 60 doing what you do now?

This is the curse of our age, even the strangest aberrations are no cure for boredom.

We should think about whether canonizations, which are an invention of the Middle Ages, still make sense today.

At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I’m Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim.

I love women. I actually prefer girls, as a parent, because they disappoint at a different age. They go through that, “Dad’s an idiot,” which lasted a little longer than I’d like.

Can’t Stop Dancing’ is this other side of me that I was ready to introduce to my fans, which is like, after you hang out with me, you start to see that I can be chilled and relaxed, and I’m a little bit more mature for my age.

It is my art. I am better at it than I ever was. And I will do it as long as I can. When you reach a certain age you can slough off what is unnecessary and concentrate on what is. And why not?