Whoopi Goldberg Quotes

Whoopi Goldberg shares confident, funny reflections on career, identity and the joy of being kind.

30 quotes

1. The name was a fluke. A joke. It started when I was doing A Christmas Carol in San Diego. We'd sit backstage and talk about names we'd never give our children, like Pork Pie or Independence. Of course, now people are walking around with those names. A woman said to me, 'If I was your mother, I would have called you Whoopi, because when you're unhappy you make a sound like a whoopee cushion. It sounds like a fart.' It was like 'Ha-ha-ha-ha-Whoopi!' So people actually started calling me Whoopi Cushion. After about a year, my mother said, 'You won't be taken seriously if you call yourself Whoopi Cushion. So try this combination: Whoopi Goldberg.'

2. Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African. The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American. This is my country. My people helped to build it and we've been here for centuries. Just call me black, if you want to call me anything.

3. Thanks! Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted this! You don't know...my brother sitting there, he says 'Thank God we don't have to listen to anymore... you can do it now!' My mom's home, everyone's watching... I have to thank the people at Paramount; I have to thank Jerry Zucker for taking the time he took before he decided to use me because he was sure it was for me... I have to thank Patrick Swazye... he was a stand up guy and went to them and said 'I wanna do it with her'... I wanna thank Demi... I wanna thank everybody who makes movies... I come from New York; as a kid, I lived in the projects and you're the people I watched...you're the people that made me wanna be an actor... I'm so proud to be here, I'm proud to be an actor and I'm gonna keep on acting, and thank you so much!

4. I am very attractive and get cuter the older I get. I'm even getting -- well, not statuesque, but I'm growing. I'm expanding. That's the best way to put it.

5. I'm an artist; art has no color and no sex.

6. If there wasn't something called acting they would probably hospitalize people like me. The giddiness and the joy of life is the moving and grooving, the exploration.

7. The greatest thing I ever was able to do was to give a welfare check back.

8. When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire.

9. Welcome to the View child

10. We'll be back with even more HoT ToPiCs (while waving her hands)

11. My family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Catholic. I don't believe in man-made religions.

12. [The original Sister Act] is running all over the world now, on-stage as a musical. It lives!

13. I want Carl Sagan to explain the sky to me.

14. What we're doing is not just about becoming a model. It's bigger than that. It's shining a spotlight on folks who know who they are. They know what they want to do. And in terms of modeling, they're already working. They know what they're doing! They're fantastic!

15. I'm a big old egotistical baby and that's okay. I can accept it.

16. For some reason, all artists have self-esteem issues.

17. I fear waking up one morning and finding out my life was all for nothing. We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark. When you're kind to someone in trouble, you hope they remember and are kind to someone else and so on. Soon it will be like a wildfire…

18. [On her monologue as the thief 'Fontaine':] People always got things. People always want things. So I provide a service.

19. I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.

20. If You don't like Gay Marriage, Don't Marry a Gay Person.

21. Now, I've always known that there were bullies in the world. We've seen a lot of it in politics lately as well as in daily life. You see it where people who may be stronger, or bigger, or better with verbiage than other folks... show off. To me, that's what bullying is, showing off. It's saying, I'm better than you, I can take you down. Not just physically, but emotionally.

22. I'd like everyone to imagine a world where you get a job as Tom, and then the next day you're Tina. Imagine you're in the world where you love what you do, but people say that you can't be who you are.

23. Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine.

24. Did you know children are dying because of AIDS. Missing the medicines that prevent transmission from mother to child. Missing the protection from parents teachers and role models that can teach them about the danger, and keep them safe from sexual exploitation. Children are missing your support. Unite for children. Unite against AIDS.

25. I believe strongly that most people in this country U.S. don't want a totalitarian state...And when conservatives say, "Get the government out of my backyard," the reality is, you can't say that and put somebody in the White House who's gonna be in your business.

26. Taliban-esque: Any behavior that imposes the beliefs of one person on everyone else. Conversations with the Taliban-esque are impossible. They aren't even conversations. With them, it's my way or no way.

27. Chocolate and candy. That's what we brought in to our friends. We worked in East Berlin with other artists who were smuggled out to come work in the Western Bloc. It was extraordinary because people in East Berlin just wanted to know what was happening. Music. Fashion. The news. All of the things we get every day.

28. I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done.

29. I don't like driving very much. That makes me very unhappy, because I scream a lot in the car, but other than that, life is actually pretty good.

30. It's being willing to walk away that gives you strength and power - if you're willing to accept the consequences of doing what you want to do.