Quotations by:
Radner, Gilda
It is so hard for us little human beings to accept this deal that we get. It’s really crazy, isn’t it? We get to live, then we have to die. What we put into every moment is all we have.
While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die — whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness.
Gilda Radner (1946-1989) American comedian
It’s Always Something, ch. 9 “The Wellness Community” (1989)
(Source)
I had wanted to wrap this book up in a neat little package about a girl who is a comedienne from Detroit, becomes famous in New York, with all the world coming her way, gets this horrible disease of cancer, is brave and fights it, learning all the skills she needs to get through it, and then, miraculously, things are neatly tied up and she gets well. I wanted to be able to write on the book jacket: “Her triumph over cancer” or “She wins the cancer war.” I wanted a perfect ending, so I sat down to write the book with the ending in place before there even was an ending.
Now I’ve learned, the hard way. that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Like my life, this book has ambiguity. Like my life, this book is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity, as Joanna said.Gilda Radner (1946-1989) American comedian
It’s Always Something, ch. 16 “Change” (1989)
(Source)
Joanna was Radner's psychotherapist.