Life Lessons from Liza Minnelli

Welcome to Life Lessons. Liza Minnelli, star of stage and screen, has graced the cover of Interview twice: once in September of 1979, and once in March of 1991. Her first appearance marked Minelli’s appearance in Martha Graham’s production of The Owl and the Pussycat. For her cover feature, our very own Andy Warhol guided the actress through a series of conversations with friends, including Halston, Steve Rubell, Bianca Jagger, and Victor Hugo.A decade later in 1991, Minnelli’s conversation with the singer kd lang offered even more tidbits of wisdom and humor to Interview‘s readers. This week, to mark her recent Oscars cameo alongside Lady Gaga, we couldn’t help but take a look through the archives. So sit back, grab a pen—you just might learn a thing or two.

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“You don’t order Italian food at a hotel.” 

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“Every once in a while it hits me what a wacky group of people we are, and how funny everything is.”

“You know, I was never allowed to be a kid until I got to be a grownup.”

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“I treasure this, my pendant, because my father gave it to me, and pearls are very good luck. Halston gave these pearl earrings to me. So whenever I have to do a heavy duty number, I put on all the good luck things I have.”

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“Here’s what I love: Japanese lanterns, daisies, black turtleneck sweaters, red carnations on occasions.”

“I would like to have a lot of walls to hang my pictures on. I would like to have a lot of things that I could never use. I’d like to have an apartment in Paris that looks like one of Daddy’s sets from Gigi. I’d like New York to be very stark and yet warm. I’d like the apartment in Paris to be very cluttered and cozy.”

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“Casati had the philosophy that men should be treated like gods and that women are put on a pedestal by men. That’s fine with me. I don’t want to get off the pedestal. I don’t want to be equal to a man. I want to be special.”

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“When [the skies are] clear, New York looks like the inside of a diamond.”

“For some reason, when I get someplace where they’re speaking a language that I can only understand snips and snaps of, I always think, everybody is so much more intelligent!” 

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“It gives me heart when somebody [stands up for themselves] at a time when everybody’s telling you what we can and can’t do and what we should be thinking and doing. You know, give me the facts and I’ll decide. That’s my right.”

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“Audiences are the same all over the world, and if you entertain them, they’ll respond.”

“I believe that sometimes if you’re not having the best day you ever had in your life, or if you’re tired—like sometimes we’ve talked on the road and it’s hard—I believe in borrowing other people’s faith, because it works. That’s why I think that talking on the phone is so important.”

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“And I’ll tell you something, from somebody who has taken drugs and who has taken alcohol, talking’s exactly what you were looking for when you took the drugs and the alcohol!” 

“You know, you play so many different parts onstage, but it’s always you.” 

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“To me, that’s always the most fun anyway, the rehearsal process. I’d much rather rehearse than do the actual show.”