Barbra Streisand Quotes

I don’t know why it is that we need to denigrate, to knock down. It’s so sick.
BARBRA STREISAND

Culture Needs Sick
When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, the neighborhood girls would sit on the stoop and sing. I was known as the kid who had a good voice and no father.
BARBRA STREISAND

Father Girl Good Kid Neighbourhood Stood
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.
BARBRA STREISAND

Art Name Thinking
I’d started going to acting classes at 14, played ‘Medea’ at 15 and really wanted to be a classical actress.
BARBRA STREISAND

Acting Actresses Class
My mother never really thought I could become anything.
BARBRA STREISAND

Anything Become Mother
In the music business, we all do different things, but we sit there and admire other people who can write a song differently or sing differently. It’s not so competitive.
BARBRA STREISAND

People Song Writing
Being a woman in music was fine, but when I wanted to direct, I was poking my head into a man’s world.
BARBRA STREISAND

Head Men World
I hate tooting my own horn, but after Steven Spielberg saw Yentl, he said: “I wish I could tell you how to fix your picture, but I can’t. It’s the best film I’ve seen since Citizen Kane”.
BARBRA STREISAND

Citizens Hate Tell Wish
I am a nice person. I care about my driver having lunch, you know.
BARBRA STREISAND

Care Lunch Nice
I’ll see a celadon green room in an 18th century New Hampshire house and just fall in love. Colors stay in my head.
BARBRA STREISAND

Color Falling House Love
I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.
BARBRA STREISAND

Actresses Began Hope Jobs
I never sing in the shower either.
BARBRA STREISAND

Either Showers Sing
Doubt can motivate you, so don’t be afraid of it. Confidence and doubt are at two ends of the scale, and you need both. They balance each other out.
BARBRA STREISAND

Balance Doubt Two
A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. But a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.
BARBRA STREISAND

Celebrate Law Men School
The audience is the barometer of the truth.
BARBRA STREISAND

Audience Barometer Truth
When I sing, people shut up.
BARBRA STREISAND

Explanation People Shut Up
And remember, this was a president (George W. Bush) who was selected by the Supreme Court rather than the people.
BARBRA STREISAND

People President Remember
They’re called ‘angels’ because they’re in heaven until the reviews come out.
BARBRA STREISAND

Angel Heaven Review
My mother told me I should be a secretary, but I wanted to be an actress from when I was very young.
BARBRA STREISAND

Actresses Mother Should
Why is it people who want the truth never believe it when they hear it?
BARBRA STREISAND

Believe Reality Truth
I go by instinct – I don’t worry about experience.
BARBRA STREISAND

Experience Instinct Natural Worry
A large part of me is pure nebbish – plain, dull, uninteresting. There’s a more flamboyant part, too. Obviously.
BARBRA STREISAND

Dull Flamboyant Pure
I arrived in Hollywood without having my nose fixed, my teeth capped, or my name changed. That is very gratifying to me.
BARBRA STREISAND

History Hollywood Name
I also have intense relationships with furniture… probably because we practically had none when I was growing up.
BARBRA STREISAND

Furniture Growing Up
You don’t ask a man, ‘Do you want to be in control [of your job]?’ You assume he wants control. Why would a woman be any different?
BARBRA STREISAND

Different Jobs Men
Thank God there were a couple of people in my life who said, “Go on, go on – you can do it!
BARBRA STREISAND

Couple Life Motivation
I’ve considered having my nose fixed. But I didn’t trust anyone enough. If I could do it myself with a mirror.
BARBRA STREISAND

Anyone Consider Mirrors Nose Trust

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