I don't have to go to a doctor and have my face changed. It terrifies me that women do that.

I have no intention of retiring. Even my blood sugar is better when I'm working.

New Yorkers stop me on the street all the time to say, 'You're terrific! You're the nuts!'

All of the writing on '30 Rock' is a joy to go into. It's pretty hot stuff.

I like being talked about. I think some people really don't... because they're secure enough and they don't need that.

I find it easier to abstain than do a little bit of anything. I'm not a 'little bit' kind of dame. I want it all, whatever I do.

I am not influenced by other human beings. But I am inspired.

If I see a great performance on television, onstage, in the movies, I go to work the next day with a renewed energy and less fear. These great artists take me out of my life and make me want to go there.

There's something that really frightens me - and that's fear.

I'm a hotel baby, absolutely: it's hard to think of a hotel I haven't stayed in.

I think it's the wrong way around to say, 'When you get older move to the country.' I think when you get older you move to New York.

I care about money, very much. I want it. I don't ever want to be without it. My mother once said about me, 'Elaine has to have money.'

When I want to do something badly enough, I do it, but there is a practical side of me that thinks I should be paid fairly.

What I want to understand is what I am talking about on the stage. What I don't want to understand is what the government is talking about when the government tells me about taxes.

I never found anyone who could look after me as well as I could look after myself.

I think the most interesting New Yorkers are the people who were not born here.

I do believe in the infallibility of the Pope, because I think we have to believe in something.

I love reviews. Anybody who tells you they don't read reviews is a liar.

For me, going to London is like coming home. In fact, I've often entertained the idea of ending my days there.

As a diabetic, I'm a walking picnic. I have to eat measured amounts of food at certain times.

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

This age thing is all up to you. It's like happiness is up to you. You just have to understand what it is before you get it.

I don't wear a wig. I'd feel terrible onstage with a wig. I hate to be so 'Actors Studio'-ish, but I like to feel it's me out there.

I tell the truth, and it has gotten me into a lot of trouble. My dad used to say to me, 'If you tell the truth all day long, you will end up in jail.'

I have not had any of that surgical stuff. I am too curious to find out exactly how I progress every day of my life naturally. That is what fascinates me.

Fear is the base of what everybody does wrong in their lives.

My movie career - if such a thing even exists - is laughable.

Why haven't I made more movies? Nobody asked me.

Certain type of actresses get younger instead of older. I always say, 'Only ingenues age.'

When I'm playing comedy, it is such a crap shoot of what will work and what won't.

I don't want to see a movie twice. I don't want to do anything twice.

Audiences are not strangers to me. They're the best friends I've got in my life.

I can't explain chemistry. I really can't. I haven't got a clue what it's all about. It just happens. It's like falling in love. You can't explain why you fall in love or explain why it's this particular person.

I don't have a great talent for explaining myself in acting because I can't explain it.

Making clever speeches takes a lot of work and a lot of time.

You have to be very, very good looking to get ahead in motion pictures.

I love Birmingham, Michigan. It's lovely - you know, it's very similar to the Hamptons.

The people in New York - their humor is on a level that goes, uh, very deep, you know?

I'm funny when I want to be. And I'm even funny when I don't want to be.

I'm a good acting partner for me... when I don't have anyone else, I do really well!

You never know what is happening to yourself when it is happening.

I could have made a lot of money doing 'Golden Girls,' and I would have been good. But the image of it! And for me to work with Betty White every day would be like taking cyanide.

Talent is very dangerous. It alienates people.

Betty White is probably a very nice woman.

Let me tell you about those convents. All that crap about extending the pinkie finger while sipping tea is a myth. Convent schools are breeding grounds for great broads and occasionally one-of-the-boys. Convent schools teach you to play against everything, which is what I'm still doing.

These performers that go on about their technique and craft - oh, puleeze! How boring! I don't know what 'technique' means. But I do know what experience is.

Talent is seductive.

You can't be funny unless you're tragic, and you can't be tragic unless you're funny.

Honestly, this is a big thing to say, but I don't think I've ever been bored. If I even get an inkling of it, I split.

I never thought about living in New York. I just thought it was great.