Life Lessons from Cher

 

Welcome to Life Lessons. Earlier this week, Cher shut down naysayers moaning about the 40-year age gap between her and her new boyfriend Alexander Edwards with a winning retort: “Love doesn’t know math,” she tweeted. So we revisited the pop goddess’ May 1982 cover story in Interview in search of more aphorisms and soundbites, of which there are plenty. Cher, on the brink of acting superstardom, climbed into bed with Andy Warhol and Bob Colacello after her first week on Broadway, starring in the Robert Altman-directed Come Back To The 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean. That same week, she’d book a supporting role opposite Meryl Streep in Mike Nichols’ Oscar-nominated Silkwood. Exhausted from her demanding performance schedule on the Great White Way, and nursing a skin rash caused by some funky throat medicine, Cher revealed why New York is better than LA, her disillusionment with fame, and being in love with two men at the same time. So sit back, and grab a pen—you might learn a thing or two.

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“I’m not destined to be a rich woman. I’m destined to be a woman who makes a lot of money and never has any. I’ve made millions and millions and millions of dollars and I just spend it.”

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“Somebody called me an actress the other night in a derogatory way and I was so proud. They said, “How can I trust you, after all you’re an actress.” It was so amazing.”

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“New York is very black and white. I like that. At least if you’re unhappy here you know it and if you’re happy you know it. In Los Angeles it never even occurs to you what you are. It only occurs to you to decorate your house and when it’s done to redecorate it because someone else had done something better in the meantime.”

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“Everybody in the world thinks they know everything about me—nobody knows anything. I’m always truthful, but truth is such a weapon. So some day I’m going to write a book that’s going to make everybody crazy.”

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“Famous is empty so quickly, it’s not what people think it is. It’s wonderful yeah, but if you’re famous and you feel that you’re an artist inside and everyone thinks you’re just a celebrity, it’s really painful. I really want to be good.”

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“Every time I pick up something that says something demeaning about me as a person or as a talent, it’s hard for me to live with that. And most of the time I think they must be right because if I was talented I would have known it by now; I would have proven it by now. But everyone has got their own time span. I think that maybe now I’ve got a chance to do something really worthwhile.”

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“This morning I thought, Well I’m having a nervous breakdown and I can’t eat, I can’t sleep and I’m in love with two guys who I don’t know what to do with and I got a part in a movie with Meryl Streep. It’s all too much. So I called in everyone and sat there and cried.”

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“Men are not necessities, they’re luxuries. You don’t need them, but they’re really wonderful.”

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“I don’t really want to get married. I don’t see any reason for it. And yet I’m so romantic that every time I think I meet someone I want to live with them forever and ever.”

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“I was never so alone as the 11 years I was married.”

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“I fall in love for about 14 months and then afterwards I love the person, but I just don’t want to be with them anymore. I move on.”

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“I hate it when parents say their children are beautiful. I don’t think Chas is beautiful. I think Chas is like me.”