Oscar Levant Quotes

I have seizures of momentary sanity.

Ballet is the fairies' baseball.

So little time and so little to do.

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

I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients.

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

On Ira Gershwin:
I remember when he was given the manuscript of a novel written by a woman friend who had hopes of having it published. To his astonishment it turned out to be the dirtiest, most pornographic book he had ever read. When the lady mentioned that she intended to use a nom de plume, Ira suggested she call herself Henrietta Miller.

I've changed, I'm nice to people and I'm not so self-centered. What I'm trying to do now is think of the other person. The only trouble is, I've found that the other person thinks only of himself.

My last picture for Warners was Romance on the High Seas. It was Doris Day's first picture; that was before she became a virgin.

Incompatibility. And besides, I think she hated me.

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.”

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.

It would have been better if you had died and Gershwin had written the elegy.

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

I heartily approve of her campaign to beautify America. It would be greatly improved if the First Family were kept out of sight.