Walter Slezak quotes

Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like. (Walter Slezak)
You have to work years in hit shows to make people sick and tired of you, but you can accomplish this in a few weeks on television.
Walter Slezak
I don't know if that character trait was deplorable or laudable; I only know that I have never been able to lose it.
Walter Slezak
In that wonderful musical show Knickerbocker Holiday Maxwell Anderson defined the outstanding characteristics of an American as "one who refuses to take orders!" I think that I qualified for that, my chosen nationality, at an early age.
Walter Slezak
After America had entered the war in December 1941 all postal service with Germany and Austria was stopped. But Papa had faithfully kept on writing to me, a ten-page letter nearly every week.
Walter Slezak
He told of all the spying that went on, the denunciations to the Gestapo, the sudden disappearances of innocent people, of the daily new edicts and restrictions, of confiscations that were nothing but robberies, arrests, and executions; how every crime committed was draped in the mantilla of legality.
Walter Slezak
Papa told her about a Lohengrin performance. It was just before his first entrance. He was ready to step into the boat, which, drawn by a swan, was to take him on-stage. Somehow the stagehand on the other side got his signals mixed, started pulling, and the swan left without Papa. He quietly turned around and said: "What time's the next swan?"
Walter Slezak
I never lie unless it is absolutely necessary. Or convenient.
Walter Slezak
Biographies usually begin with the smack on the bottom and the first lusty cry of the subject. I deplore this literary custom, because it is impossible to remember anything about one's birth firsthand. It is bound to be hearsay, and embellished, gilded hearsay at that.
Walter Slezak
"Overwrite - put down everything that comes to your mind," I was told. "Be explicit, elaborate. Judicious pruning will be done later. Don't be afraid to name names. Lawyers will tooth-comb the book before it gets into print and protect you from libel suits. Don't be afraid to shock people. Be daring. Be spicy. Tell all!" I did. I followed everybody's advice. About seven hundred thirty pages were judiciously pruned in order to protect the innocent, to make it possible for the book to be sent through the U. S. mails, and to prevent me from spending the twilight years of my life in jail for criminal libel. What's left is here. PLEASE LIKE IT.
Walter Slezak