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Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art QUOTES

Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art QUOTES

1 " It's difficult to continue loving someone who shits on you. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

2 " Which one of us, anywhere in the world, doesn't yearn to be believed when the audience is watching? "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

3 " If the physical thing you're doing is funny, you don't have to act funny while doing it...Just be real and it will be funnier "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

4 " When I was eight years old, my mother had her first heart attack. After my father brought her home from the hospital, her fat heart specialist came to see how she was doing. He visited with her for about ten minutes, and then, on his way out of the house, he grabbed my right arm, leaned his sweaty face against my cheek, and whispered in my ear, “Don’t ever argue with your mother—you might kill her.” I didn’t know what to make of that, except that I could kill my mother if I got angry with her. The other thing he said was: “Try to make her laugh.” So I tried. It was the first time I ever consciously tried to make someone laugh. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

5 " I think to be believed—onstage or on-screen—is the one hope that all actors share. Which one of us, anywhere in the world, doesn’t yearn to be believed when the audience is watching? "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

6 " When I walked out of the movie theater I started thinking about my second-grade teacher, Miss Bernard, who used to put up paintings from almost all of the other boys and girls in my class on the classroom walls—paintings that she considered worthy—but she never put up one of mine. She never told me why or gave me an encouraging word, but I got the message: “You’re no good at art, Jerry. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

7 " Maybe the Demon forced his way in because it was this particular play. As I waited for my cue, I kept thinking that I could shut him out in plenty of time . . . but I couldn’t; the fear of not praying overpowered me, even though it was a matter of seconds before my entrance. I saw both the play and my brain falling apart. Then, somehow, the obligation to the audience and Arthur Miller and my memory of Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock became more important to me than God. I heard my cue, said my first line . . . and I was safe for the remainder of the play. Years after that, I still carried the inexplicable conviction that once I stepped onto the stage, they couldn’t get me (whoever the hell “they” were) and that I was safe . . . so long as the curtain was up. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

8 " How could she not be frightened? I was frightened too. I put my arms around her and hugged her for the longest time. “Don’t worry, don’t worry—you’re not alone. We’ll figure it out, don’t worry.” “I don’t know how it happened. My gynecologist said that it only happens with this new IUD maybe once every 100,000 times.” “Well, that’s a consolation.” She laughed. I pulled down the cover and fluffed up the pillows. Then we both got into bed, and I held her. “I don’t want to make trouble for you,” she said. “I’m so sorry.” “Please don’t say that. You have nothing to be sorry for.” “You’re not angry, dear?” “Of course not. Please don’t talk like that again. We’ll figure out what’s best. Don’t worry now.” And I held her until we both fell asleep. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

9 " We went to Arizona to film the interiors of Stir Crazy in an actual prison. From Tucson, where we all stayed, it was an hour-and-a-half drive to the Arizona State Penitentiary. Sidney used real prisoners as extras. They had all been cleared by the prison authorities to work with us, and each prisoner was paid for every day he worked. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

10 " If Columbia Pictures had not succumbed to Richard’s demands, and if I were a cocky, son-of-a-bitch movie star, and if Sidney Poitier had not held in his rage, there would have been no Stir Crazy. For the sake of my psychological health, I should have let out my anger at the time that I was angry. From the point of view of getting the picture made—I’m glad I didn’t. The picture was a great success. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

11 " Gilda, you’re talking like this is a fairy tale, and you’re going to meet Prince Charming, and everything’s going to be all right, and we’ll both live happily ever after.” “So what’s wrong with that? "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

12 " Gilda, if your marriage is so bad why don’t you get out of it?” “I’m afraid to be alone. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

13 " then I took out a notepad and wrote my first poem. Across three thousand miles of sea and through strange England’s smiling, and into a wee Scots Highland town there is a lad who’s crying. Oh fool the world, he could, he could, a man at twenty years . . . but all alone in that Highland town there is a boy in tears. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

14 " MARGIE: You want to know if she’ll survive? She’ll survive! Living with someone who doesn’t want to be there would do more harm. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

15 " When we got back to my room, Gilda gave the dog a bowl of water and set some newspaper down in the bathroom for her to pee on. After that was taken care of, I ordered the cheesecake and coffee that Gilda said she has a yen for, and then we continues talking. Sparkle didn’t make a sound — no barking or winning or heaving breathing — she just sat on the floor and looked at the two of us. It must have been strange for her. She was a year old and had been taken from a farm by a stranger, put on an airplane, driven in a limousine, and then hugged and kissed by another stranger. Even when the doorbell rang, she didn’t bark. I thought perhaps she wasn’t able to bark. The waiter brought in the cheesecake and  poured out some coffee for us. When Gilda and I started eating the cheesecake, we heard a little peep form Sparkle. She sounded more like a bird than a dog — a very polite bird — but it was obvious that she wanted her share of cheesecake, which Gilda gave her. So the three of us polished off the cheesecake — “One piece, three forks, please. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

16 " I put my chin on my chest. I was afraid to look at any of the people who were watching us. My lips kept moving without making sounds: Please stop, please stop, everyone’s watching. . . . But at the same time I was thinking, Good for you, Mama, good for you. What courage—to scream in front of the whole restaurant. Poor Daddy. Good for you, Mama. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

17 " There is one strange irony that I haven’t told you. One April afternoon, three weeks before she died, Gilda walked up to me in our living room and said, “I have a title for you, ‘Kiss Me Like a Stranger’ . . . maybe you can use it some day.” I had no idea why she said it or what the title meant; I just thanked her. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

18 " When we saw the ascension scene—where I rise with the Creature on an elevated platform and cry, “LIFE, DO YOU HEAR ME? GIVE MY CREATION LIFE!,” my heart sank. I thought this was going to be one of the highlights of the film, and instead it was a boring blob. I put my head down. Mel didn’t vomit. Instead, he got up and started banging his head against the wall. He hit it three times, hard. Then turned his face to the rest of us and said, “Let’s not get excited! You have just witnessed a 14-minute disaster. In one week you’re going to see a 12-minute fairly rotten scene. In two weeks you’re going to see a 10-minute fairly good scene. And in three weeks, you are going to see an 8-minute masterpiece. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

19 " I’m not a disciplinarian. I understand the need for discipline, of course, but I’m just not good at it. I’m not talking about hitting—I don’t think any parent should ever hit a child—but about setting the rules and sticking by them. How to punish without taking away love—that’s the great art. I wished that I could do it, but I was trapped by the most ironic dichotomy: I was afraid that if I set rules and drew lines and enforced discipline, Katie would take her love away from me. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

20 " When I make my first entrance, I’d like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk towards the crowd with a limp. After the crowd sees that Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet. As I walk towards them, my cane sinks into one of the cobblestones I’m walking on and stands straight up, by itself . . . but I keep on walking, until I realize that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause.” “. . . Why do you want to do that?” “Because from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth. "

― Gene Wilder , Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art