Gilda Quotes & Sayings

What we put into every moment is all we have. You can drug yourself to death or you can smoke yourself to death or eat yourself to death, or you can do everything right and be healthy and then get hit by a car. Life is so great, such a neat thing, and yet all during it we have to face death, which can make you nuts and depressed. — Gilda Radner

It is so hard for us little human beings to accept this deal that we get. It's really crazy, isn't it? We get to live, then we have to die ... What spirit human beings have! It is a pretty cheesy deal - all the pleasures of life, and then death. — Gilda Radner

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. — Gilda Radner

It's such an act of optimism to get through a day and enjoy it and laugh and do all that without thinking about death. What spirit human beings have! — Gilda Radner

Every time I got disappointed I'd remember the Roseannadanna philosophy that says that you shouldn't cry over split milk 'cause if you spill some milk and instead of cleaning it up you just walk over it and start crying, they're gonna put you on lithium. — Gilda Radner

You feel completely in control when you hear a wave of laughter coming back at you that you have caused. — Gilda Radner

I think clothes should make you feel safe. I like clothes you want to go to sleep in. I sometimes stand in front of a mirror and change a million times because I know I really want to wear my nightgown. — Gilda Radner

I think 'Saturday Night Live', starting in the 1970s, really gave women an outlet to be funny. A lot of those women went on to have film careers, from Kristen Wiig now to Tina Fey and Gilda Radner. — Emma Stone

Fame changes a lot of things, but it can't change a lightbulb. — Gilda Radner

Besides, you know how I love the theater, and let's face it-a wedding is like a big show followed by a cast party. — Jennifer Allison

I've learned what I can control is whether I am going to live a day in fear and depression and panic, or whether I am going to attack the day and make it as good a day, as wonderful a day, as I can. — Gilda Radner

Never let a gynecologist put anything in your nose. — Gilda Radner

Some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. — Gilda Radner

Motherhood ... is an act of infinite optimism. — Gilda Radner

No one can be Gilda twenty-four hours a day. — Rita Hayworth

In my mid-twenties, I said to myself: 'I can't perform anymore!' I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't perform for a while, then ended up doing a one-woman show about Gilda Radner having cancer. It was called 'Gilda Defying Gravity,' and I did it on the Lower East Side. It was great; people really came out and supported me. — Spencer Kayden

The first time I went to see a Second City show, I was in awe of everything. I just wanted to touch the same stage that Gilda Radner had walked on. It was sacred ground. — Tina Fey

Adopted kids are such a pain - you have to teach them how to look like you. — Gilda Radner

I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch. — Gilda Radner

I would rather be funny than gorgeous, absolutely. Because it's too hard to be gorgeous, you know. I could make a stab at gorgeous as long as I had something funny to say to get out of it. — Gilda Radner

You cannot live in Los Angeles for any period of time without eventually trying to write a screenplay. It's like a flu bug that you catch ... Even the plumber has a screenplay in his truck. — Gilda Radner

I always was trying to make people laugh as a kid. I was a big fan of Carol Burnett and Gilda Radner. I watched them and I remember feeling as a child, when I heard the laughter they got, a little jealous that they made someone laugh like that. — Leah Remini

I'm not really an impersonator. — Gilda Radner

Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to. — Gilda Radner

I would say that Lucy, 'I Love Lucy,' she was my idol. — Gilda Radner

The more I protested about this ambiguity, the more Joanna pointed out to me that it was both a terrible and wonderful part of life: terrible because you can't count on anything for sure - like certain good health and no possibility of cancer; wonderful because no human being knows when another is going to die - no doctor can absolutely predict the outcome of a disease. The only thing that is certain is change. Joanna calls all of this 'delicious ambiguity.' 'Couldn't there be comfort and freedom in no one knowing the outcome of anything and all things being possible?' she asked. Was I convinced? Not completely. I still wanted to believe in magic thinking. But I was intrigued. — Gilda Radner

[Emily Litella line:] Never mind. — Gilda Radner

I love being a woman. You can cry. You get to wear pants now. If you're on a boat and it's going to sink, you get to go on the rescue boat first. You get to wear cute clothes. It must be a great thing, or so many men wouldn't be wanting to do it. — Gilda Radner

Pidgin, pidgin everywhere. A peculiarity of dropping the connective, the article, of translating literally, of using present for past, present for future. We Filipinos did not speak pidgin. Our English was straight from the grammar texts. — Gilda Cordero-Fernando

Wouldn't it be most logical for her to change herself into a living thing, like a cat or dog, a bird or mouse?'
That would be the easiest transformation, but Risto is above doing something simple.'
Still, I'd be happier if Dibl would quit eating those bugs. Dibl, stop it. You might eat Gilda. — Donita K. Paul

Men fell in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me. — Rita Hayworth

The wonderful thing about Gilda Radner was that she was not a person who disappointed. — Anne Beatts

Comedy is very controlling - you are making people laugh. — Gilda Radner

I think dogs are the most amazing creatures;
they give unconditional love.
For me they are the role model for being alive. — Gilda Radner

I remember watching Gilda Radner when I was a kid and everyone thought she was so funny and no one ever said that she was a funny woman, she was just funny. — Rachel Dratch

The goal is to live a full, productive life even with all that ambiguity. No matter what happens, whether the cancer never flares up again or whether you die, the important thing is that the days that you have had you will have lived. — Gilda Radner

And last week, when he finally began to erase it, he noticed something very strange: the accent on the letter E was actually formed from a piece of materiel. We all watched as he stared at the letter E for a very long time. Then he slowly unpeeled the rolled-up cloth fro the blackboard and unfurled the biggest pair of polka dot panties anyone in the room had ever seen. — Jennifer Allison

I grew up in front of a television. I guess I'll grow old inside of one. — Gilda Radner

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity. — Gilda Radner

I love funny people. I met and became friends with some of the funniest people ever. Gilda Radner, bless her soul; Martin Short; Dave Thomas; Eugene Levy. — Paul Shaffer

It's always something. — Gilda Radner

I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity. — Gilda Radner

I'd much rather be a woman than a man. Women can cry, they can wear cute clothes, and they are the first to be rescued off of sinking ships. — Gilda Radner

So many people: Lucille Ball is the earliest incarnation of a woman I thought was funny, Joan Rivers, Roseanne, Carol Burnett, Gilda Radnor, down to current times, where you have Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Kristen Wiig. — Chelsea Peretti

There is no real security except for whatever you build inside yourself. — Gilda Radner

The girls that I grew up with, and my friends and I, we just never had interests in common. I loved comedy. I loved Saturday Night Live, Gilda Radner, Lucille Ball, and Goldie Hawn movies. I just wanted to laugh. I liked women in comedy, and I liked male comics as I got a little older. My interests just never matched up with other girls'. — Amy Schumer

Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda ... and woke up with me. — Rita Hayworth

There are those who open their hearts to others ... who never think twice about giving of themselves. They are the wonderful warmhearted people who make all the difference in our lives. — Gilda Radner

Humor is just truth, only faster! — Gilda Radner

Every man I have ever known has fallen in love with Gilda and awakened with me. — Rita Hayworth

Cancer is probably the most unfunny thing in the world, but I'm a comedian, and even cancer couldn't stop me from seeing the humor in what I went through. — Gilda Radner

Cancer changes your life, often for the better. You learn what's important, you learn to prioritize, and you learn not to waste your time. You tell people you love them. My friend Gilda Radner used to say, 'If it wasn't for the downside, having cancer would be the best thing and everyone would want it.' That's true. If it wasn't for the downside. — Gilda Radner

I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Suddenly I had to spend all my time getting well. — Gilda Radner

Many cherish art as a special haven within an over-schematized world, where ambiguities can thrive. If an artwork's message is self-evident, maybe it's just an illustration, a decorative non-entity, a well-executed craft object, hardly counting as 'significant' art at all. It's not just that without an explanation the viewer is lost; without some written framework to steady it, the art itself risks losing its way, never gaining traction in the contemporary art system. From this perspective, both viewer and artwork alike are as if handicapped without the art-world's special assistance. — Gilda Williams

There are no guarantees. There are no promises, but there is you, and strength inside to fight for recovery. And always there is hope. — Gilda Radner

[Roseanne Roseannadanna line:] It's always something. — Gilda Radner

Rita Hayworth in Gilda ... there's not a shot of her in that movie that isn't gorgeous. — Donna Mills

I loved pretending to be a middle-aged Jewish woman. I just wanted to do what I saw Gilda Radner and Carol Burnett doing. But I'm not a particularly good impressionist. It was never my strong suit. — Jenny Slate

[Motherhood is] the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It's huge and scary-it's an act of infinite optimism. — Gilda Radner

Gilda: How severe is the corporal punishment here?
Mrs. McCracken: Honey, nobody's going to spank you here. Don't worry. — Jennifer Allison

While we have the gift of life, it seems to me that only tragedy is to allow part of us to die - whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness. — Gilda Radner

I'm not so funny. Gilda was funny. I'm funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while. But she was funny. She spent more time worrying about being liked than anything else. — Gene Wilder

Show business is like riding a bicycle - when you fall off, the best thing to do is get up, brush yourself off and get back on again. — Gilda Radner

I loved the late Gilda Radner. I love Carol Burnett and Lily Tomlin. — Tracey Ullman

I have always found men who were funny, irresistible. It's rare that I ever based love on looks or superficial things, but it a guy made me laugh-and that didn't mean he had to be in comedy professionally - I was hooked. — Gilda Radner

It's like my father always said to me, he said to me, he said, Roseanna Roseanadana, it's always something. If it isn't one thing
it's another! It's always something. — Gilda Radner

My life had made me funny, and cancer wasn't going to change that, — Gilda Radner

Dreams are like paper, they tear so easily. — Gilda Radner

I'm so full I can't hear. — Gilda Radner

As a young girl, if you do something funny - especially if you're Jewish - someone says, 'Oh, have you seen Gilda Radner?' — Rachel Bloom