Oscar Levant Quotes

I'm a study of a man in chaos in search of frenzy.

Tell me, George, if you had it to do all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?

I rated the drug Demerol over sex as the ultimate pleasure at one time. Now I don’t have access to either.

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

I’ve stepped on too many toes on the way down.

I would like to have been present, if I could have my choice of all moments in music history, when Stokowski suddenly became conscious of his beautiful hands. That must have been a moment. Like stout Cortez [sic] on a peak in Darien (I know it was Balboa) he saw before him a limitless expanse, a whole uncharted sea that might be subjected to his influence, free from the encumbrance of a baton.

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

An epigram is only a wisecrack that's played at Carnegie Hall.

Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.

I don't drink liquor. I don't like it. It makes me feel good.

The difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is that the Democrats let the poor be corrupt, too.

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.”

You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. (Oscar trying to talk his way out of a speeding ticket)

When I can't sleep, I read a book by Steve Allen.

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