Cloris Leachman quotes: the late actress’ most popular quotes.
“Let whatever’s going to happen, happen. Don’t judge it before you do it. Sure, sometimes it will be terrible, but sometimes it will just be amazing. That’s where the gold is.”
“Fiber is what you’re made of inside. It’s not a moral thing or religious. It’s a fiber that comes from your background and your awareness of something larger than yourself. It isn’t God. It’s just a strength. The idea of fiber of rope that gets twisted and becomes stronger when there’s more than one strand and it’s not going to break easily.”
“I don’t stress at all. When other people say, ‘I’m having a bad day,’ I ask, ‘How can you have a bad day for the entire 24 hours, or even 12 or eight hours?’ Something bad might happen, but that can’t make the entire day bad.”
“Since my childhood I have disliked rules and for the most part have avoided them.”
“If you know how bad things are and you do what you have to do, that would be courage. If you don’t know the bad side, then it’s not courageous, is it?”
“Truth, forgiveness and overcoming obstacles as a team, as a family, is important. We should all remember that there are always different sides to the story.”
“I think with all that’s happening in the world, people are looking to the creative world to give them something hopeful and positive. It reminds people that there is good out there.”
“Now men and women are separate and unequal. We should be hand in hand; in fact, we should have our arms around one another.”
“Should you have an affair with a black person just because you never have? Yeah, why not? I think you should do everything you’ve never done before, maybe once, maybe twice, because then you might have something to say on the subject. We’ve got to stop being afraid of everything.”
“I resist and resent labeling of any kind. It’s like putting a lid on something, boxing it up, and the life leaves. Age is a state of mind. I detest the designation. Just think what it means: after you’re born and before you die. Talk about putting a lid on something. It’s the lid on the box. I don’t believe in life after death, but I also don’t believe in boxing anything. A crossroads? Ridiculous.”
“In third grade, my teacher asked me to read in front of the class. I was so touched because that really was the first acting I had ever done, just reading in front of the class. And I was so amazed with the fulfillment I got from being in front of people.”
“I am from Des Moines, Iowa—not even the city but out in the country. I don’t have a lot of trappings, I think, in my personality. I’m just a simple person with a silly bone.”
“At age 11, I hitchhiked a coal truck, with my mother’s encouragement, to nearby Drake University, where I auditioned for (and won) a part in a children’s radio show. At 15, I won a special summer drama scholarship to Northwestern. Later, as an undergraduate, I won the school’s best actress award in my sophomore year. About that time my attractively aquiline features and estimable figure sent me to Atlantic City, and as Miss Chicago in 1946, I was one of the finalists in the 1946 Miss America pageant.”
“I told the judges I wasn’t even from Chicago. I told them I was from Iowa, but then I told them my grandmother always said: ‘You go in there and bring home the bacon,’ whereupon they crowned me.”
“When something is truly funny, it’s funny all the time. If it’s funny, I’ll do anything.”
“I live a very leisurely life. When I do work, it’s not work: it’s great fun and exciting and fresh. New, wonderful, talented people. It’s great pleasure and great fun.”
“I don’t look for roles, for they come to me. Mind you, it’s not like I’m sitting in the middle of the floor with thousands of scripts around me. When work comes up, it’s good. I love it. Work doesn’t feel like work.”
“I enjoy working and acting.”
“This is what I do. I love it. I just love it. It’s very exciting.”
“If I were to do some outlandish role, I always made sure I’d be on Johnny Carson to show that I wasn’t that person that I played. I’d be myself. And so people got to know me, I think, and I think they know that I’m honest and truthful and real.”
“What do I attribute my success in comedy to? It starts with good writing!”
“I always have a great deal of fun being with people. It’s part of the journey.”
“The family is the center of my existence. I put all my hopes and caringness and deepest feelings into it. That’s why I feel no resentment at arriving so late as an actress. I chose to have children early, and I don’t regret it.”
“Well, children really ground you. You come home and no matter what’s been going on in the outside world and all the movie star stuff, you quickly cook dinner and clean up and get on with it.”
“I’ve taken care of myself all my life.”
“I always wanted to be healthy and look good. I taught myself in my mid thirties about eating right.”
“Some people would rather give the appearance of feeling well by having a facelift, exercising violently, or dieting severely, but they don’t solve the problem; they only disguise it. If they ate properly, they wouldn’t have to strain to seem fit; they would be fit. The simplest and most natural way usually turns out to be the easiest.”
“I’ve been so relieved and so grateful to not have a God to believe in.”
“I am an atheist, absolutely. But I really think it is wonderful that there are Gods for people who need them. We all believe in something. It’s something or nothing. If you believe in nothing you believe in something. I think it’s wonderful that they build a place where we can come and be there together. It’s got a lot of good things about it.”
“They are going to have to take a lead pipe and beat me over the head with it to get me to stop.”
“I’m having an amazing life and it isn’t over yet.”
“The secret to longevity and health is doing what you love.”
