Take a step back, evaluate what is important, and enjoy life.
Teri Garr
When you hear the word 'disabled,' people immediately think about people who can't walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted. Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can't find joy in life and are bitter.
You have to find out what's right for you, so it's trial and error. You are going to be all right if you accept realistic goals for yourself.
I refused David Letterman's proposal of marriage for obvious reasons, but thanks for asking.
I have an enormous fondness for delicious food. It's very comforting.
If you get a diagnosis, get on a therapy, keep a good attitude and keep your sense of humor.
I had been nominated for an Academy Award for my performance as Sandy Lester, Dustin Hoffman's neurotic, struggling actress girlfriend, in 'Tootsie.' Under Sydney Pollack's direction, 'Tootsie' had been a runaway hit starring Dustin as an unemployed actor who pretends to be a woman in order to land a role in a soap opera.
Elvis used to have parties at his house - and I've told this story a million times - but they weren't really parties, because there was no chips or dip. Just Elvis and his boys watching TV, and him making funny comments, and everybody laughing at them. Is that a party? Not really. But that's Hollywood.
Speed bumps, I was thinking, you know, you're driving along, everything's OK, and then there's a speed bump to go, 'Slow down.' Go over it real slowly, and you hit the pedal, and you keep going, and I just thought it was kind of a nice metaphor for life.
I started out in the 1970s doing the Wife, the Bimbo, and the Ditz, and if I somehow get a serious role, they all wanna know the same thing: When are you going back to comedy?
My next book's title is going to be, 'I Have One Foot in the Grave and Another on a Banana Peel.'
When one woman found out I had multiple sclerosis, she said to me, 'My heart bleeds for you.' I said to her, 'Well, my heart bleeds for you, because you're an idiot.'
I resent it when they write the part of a woman who's just a sexy femme fatale who seduces people to ger her way, perpetrating the myth that that's how woman have to operate, instead of using their brains or their wit.
You have to lift your head up out of the mud and just do it.
They drilled a hole in my head and wrapped a coil around my brain so it wouldn't bleed anymore.
People ask me about my limp. I say, 'You know, I don't know how bad it is, because I don't watch - I don't watch myself.' I don't look at it. I don't.
There are several drugs out right now that can't stop multiple sclerosis, but they can slow it way down. They also made me puff up like a balloon. So I looked horrible. I hated that.
I recently saw the movie about Ray Charles, and there's a scene where he falls down and the mother doesn't help him. She says, I don't want anyone to treat you like a cripple. I've fallen down before, and Molly will say, get up and just go.
If there's ever a woman who's smart, funny, or witty, people are afraid of that, so they don't write that. They only write parts for women where they let everything be steamrolled over them, where they let people wipe their feet all over them.
There's always going to be somebody worse off than me.
I was in love with Michael Keaton. He was very funny.
In addition to having a good partnership with a good doctor, you have to do some of the work yourself. Go online, read about it, and find out what you can tolerate.
I didn't tell people because I didn't want pity, and I was afraid I wouldn't get work. But others with MS need to know they are not alone. We don't have to be victims.
Being a successful Hollywood actress may be challenging, but little did I know that the very body that had always been my calling card would betray me.
I did a string of about six or seven Elvis movies, all in a row. He made all of those movies in two years' time. All of them bad. Don't quote me.
Being sensitive to the problem of women is just another symptom of the quality of movies: I don't think you can do anything that's very sensitive. Everything's sort of broad strokes and big gestures - adventure things that boys, guys want to see.
I go to Yosemite a lot. To get there, you fly from L.A. to Fresno and rent a car. So I know about Fresno. It looks like the entire city was built in 1946 in three months - all these low California ranch style homes. The whole city looks like that.
Directors would tell me, 'We want you to play a character a little less complex than you are.' Yeah, sure. What they mean is, 'You're playing a dummy.'
People aren't so interested in seeing movies about women's problems.
This new movie, 'Full Moon in Blue Water,' I loved the idea of working with Gene Hackman, who is a great actor, but when I read the script, I threw it right into the trash can, because I didn't like this woman. She was just a doormat.
Oddly enough, MS has made my life so much better than it was before. I now appreciate what I have and I am not running around like a rat in a maze.
I go to my physical therapist to keep fighting it and one of them told me if you don't use it, you lose it, but I know we're on television so I won't say what I would often say.
I'd like to play something classical. I'm in the Strindberg society, and we do readings of Strindberg plays. I'd love to do Nora in 'A Doll's House.' And Chekhov. I have been working back to back on what I call 'regular jobs,' so it's hard to do plays.
Speaking out about multiple sclerosis to others who may be dealing with this disease is actually helpful to me as well as, I hope, to others. It builds community, helps bring awareness to MS, and strengthens the MS movement that will ultimately lead to the end of this disease.
Someday they may cure MS, that idiot thing. It gets in there and they can't get it out.
If you get your foot in the door doing one kind of part, that's the kind of role they call you for. I can't say I resent it - then I would resent my whole career.
God is in all - I believe in God, yes. And I believe God is in us.
'30 Rock' is one of the best things on TV, I think.
I take one of the interferon therapies, Rebif.
Everyone I tell that I had an aneurysm always says, 'Oh, my cousin died from that.' Well, I didn't, so I'm amazed. I was in a wheelchair, and I had to go to rehab. And now I'm walking!
I went on the 'Letterman' show the first time to plug something, and then I came back as the Fool, the court jester.
I have one brother who is a surgeon, there's me, and my other brother builds boats.
I don't want to sound hoity-toity, but people told me I should watch 'Cheers' because it's very funny. So I watched it, and I just went, 'This is the great show of the universe?' To me, acting is making characters believable, not just doing jokes.
My mother was a Rockette at Radio City.
My father died when I was 11. He was a vaudeville comedian. He worked in one movie, 'Ladies of the Chorus,' as Marilyn Monroe's father.
I feel very badly about anybody that's sick and in a wheelchair or not doing well. But you know, you have to go, 'Life is a poker game, and we're going to play our cards somehow.'
I remember some stories had a very big impact on me, like 'The Little Train That Could,' which is about the importance of not giving up, and 'Little Toot,' about a playful tugboat in the New York harbor.
Any movie I've ever made, the minute you walk on the set they tell you who's the person to buy it from.
I'm wondering if they haven't reported all the people with MS, because if all of the cases were reported, the government would have to step in and give more financial aid to us.
I feel ashamed of how many houses I've actually crept inside of when they were up for sale. I'm not a snoop, but I love looking and imagining.
