Oscar Levant Quotes

A psychiatrist once diagnosed my troubles as “an abdication of will.”

As a rule I never read bad reviews about myself because my best friends invariably tell me about them.

Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.

Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.

Zsa Zsa Gabor not only worships at The Golden Calf, she insists on barbecuing it for lunch.

I'm going to memorize your name and throw my head away.

Happiness isn't something you experience, it's something you remember.

He never asks the orchestra to do anything which contradicts the players' feeling of what the music signifies or what the printed notes of the score actually mean in plain musical language. To his credit he does not pretend to omniscience. When a certain progression of programs with the Philharmonic decreed that he conduct the Brahms Fourth Symphony two seasons ago, he disavowed intensive rehearsals with the simple statement to the orchestra: "Gentlemen, you know the work better than I do." Both the compliment and the attitude endeared themselves so much to the orchestra that they literally forgot themselves in a mass effort to justify his statement—and, as one of those who heard the performance, I can testify that they delivered one of the most powerful and integrated interpretations of the score that New York has experienced in years.

Apropos of nothing, I asked [Truman] Capote, “Are you for integration?” He said, “Yes, are you for integration?” I said, “I’m for disintegration… personal disintegration.”

Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath.

Once I make up my mind, I'm full of indecision.

Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you will find the real tinsel underneath.

When I was in my prime, I was an egomaniac and didn’t allow my wife to buy the best sardines–the King Oscars–which bear my name. I felt there should be only one king in my house.

There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.

This piano plays. Which is more than I can say for her.