On November 13th, Whoopi Goldberg turned 60. The actress, producer and The View co-host got her first Oscar nomination when she made her film debut in The Color Purple. And she's one of those rare people to have won the Academy Award (Ghost), Golden Globe (the Color Purple, and Ghost), Emmy (Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel), Daytime Emmy (The View), Grammy (for her comedy album "Whoopi Goldberg") and a Tony (for producing Thoroughly Modern Millie).
"I've never seen anyone like her,'' said the late Mike Nichols, who produced and supervised her one woman show on Broadway in 1984 and was a great force in launching her career. ''What moves people so much, aside from her talent, is her spirit. "{She is} one part Elaine May, one part Groucho, one part Ruth Draper, one part Richard Pryor and five parts never before seen."
Celebrate Whoopi Goldberg's 60th birthday with some of her great quotes.
"I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities."
"My first coherent thought was probably, I want to be an actor. I believe that. That's just what I was born to do."
"When I was nine-years-old Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mom, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be."
"I told [Alice Walker] that whenever there was an audition I'd come. I'd eat the dirt. I'd play the dirt, I'd be the dirt, because the part is perfect." (On playing Celie in The Color Purple.)
"When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked."
"I don't have pet peeves, I have whole kennels of irritation."
"I liked the idea that you could pretend to be somebody else and nobody would cart you off to the hospital,"
"In the dark times, if you have something to hold on to, which is yourself, you'll survive."
"When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire."
"I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done."
"For some reason all artists have self-esteem issues."
"If you can handle the fact that people are going to be mad at you when you do what you think is right, you'll be alright."
"We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark."
"Normal is just a cycle on the washing machine."
"Taking action is hard, but know what? Enduring a bad situation can be its own hell."
"Be an actor because you love to act. Don't be an actor because you think you're going to get famous, because that's luck."
"When I forget how talented God is, I look to the sea."
"We're born with success. It is only others who point out our failures, and what they attribute to us as failure."
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