I think when I was younger, I wanted to be a star, until I became a star, and then it's a lot of work. It's work to be a star. I don't enjoy the stardom part. I only enjoy the creative process.
Barbra StreisandRead
It always gave me the creeps when I saw performers who desperately wanted the audience to like them. That's not what I'm about.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the discomfort of seeing performers seek approval at the expense of their authenticity.
Barbra Streisand expresses her discomfort with performers who seem overly eager for audience approval. She suggests that true artistry lies in authenticity and staying true to oneself rather than altering one's performance to gain favor. This embodies a philosophy where personal integrity and individuality are prioritized over external validation.
In practice
This quote can be used during a speech about the importance of staying true to oneself in the creative industries.
I think when I was younger, I wanted to be a star, until I became a star, and then it's a lot of work. It's work to be a star. I don't enjoy the stardom part. I only enjoy the creative process.
The audience is the best judge of anything. They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags - they're gonna cough.
A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. A man who invested wisely would be admired, but a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.
I was a personality before I became a person - I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy and driven.
He (son Jason) doesn't see me as a (gay) icon, he sees me as his mother who touches his hair too much. No, I love being an icon to anybody. Equal rights, you know?
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.
The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture βThis is a pipeβ, I'd have been lying!
I think, with age, you learn that it comes in bursts and you've got no control over it. I'm not one of those people who says, 'I've got to write a song every day.' I just store up ideas, and really I have to wait until it finds me; I know when I'm ready to write. It used to frustrate me, but it doesn't any more. It's just how it is.
The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be.
Poems come from ordinary experiences and objects, I think. Out of memory - a dress I lent my daughter on her way back to college; a newspaper photograph of war; a breast self-exam; the tooth fairy; Calvinist parents who beat up their children; a gesture of love; seeing oneself naked over age 50 in a set of bright hotel bathroom mirrors.
And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
I feel blessed and humbled that people have loved my music. Nothing would be possible without their acceptance.
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