Show Business Quotes

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.
- Ronald Reagan

In show business, you get chewed up and spit out.
- John Aniston

You and I and everybody in show business and the entertainment industry fly by the seat of our pants. We don't know quite what is going to happen.
- William Shatner

The nature of show business is people within the business feel that if someone else fails, they move up a notch.
- Tom Arnold

I'm celebrating my 40th year in show business this year.
- Roy Ayers

I've been in show business for 50, no, 60 years. I was approached in school to join a variety act.
- Kenny Baker

On the whole, show business is a hard business in which to be married.
- Scott Bakula

I went into show business because I love to work with people, and what I enjoy most about acting is rehearsing and getting to know people and their talents, forming relationships. Working in this business, barriers drop and you get into people real quickly.
- Scott Bakula

The great thing about show business is that there's no mandatory retirement age.
- Scott Bakula

But this is called show business, not show family.
- Alice Barrett

Spontaneity is such an entertaining facet of show business.
- Chuck Barris

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel... and that's what I've been doing all my life.
- Count Basie

I decided to retire from show business at the age of 17, because I didn't like it a bit.
- Shirley Bassey

Government is not show business.
- Warren Beatty

Politics is show business for ugly people.
- Paul Begala

There's no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting.
- David Letterman

I walked out of the show business in 1968 because I thought that would be good for the family. It took me some time to decide but I wanted to spend more time with my wife and two daughters who were always beside me. I wanted to do everything I could for them.
- Pete Best

I'd still like to see 'Survivor' minus the planned show-biz parts. That would be the purest form of show business - I want to see someone so hungry that they eat somebody else's foot.
- Albert Brooks

We had some problems - my children were kidnapped during that time, and it just changed my whole way of thinking, from being in show business and everything else.
- Solomon Burke

I'm very happy to be employed. I always contend that in show business that if you're employed, then you're successful.
- Lance Burton

If I lose show business - I'll really be an orphan!
- Red Buttons

Creative people don't behave very well generally. If you're looking for examples of good relationships in show business, you're gonna be depressed real fast. I don't have time for anything else right now but work and my daughter. She's my first priority.
- Jim Carrey

I was a weirdo to want to be in show business. Most kids wanted to be teachers or nurses.
- Nell Carter

I am kind of a private person, so I don't miss that part of show business at all. Looking back on my career in television and making a movie like 'The Sound of Music' from an adult point of view, it actually seems kind of unreal. I was involved in shows that people grew up with - that hold memories for them - and it's a cool feeling.
- Angela Cartwright

I was never one to seek out the spotlight. I am kind of a private person, so I don't miss that part of show business at all.
- Angela Cartwright

After my kids were born I found myself incorporating my photography into different art endeavors and from there it just blossomed. I have always had to have an outlet for my creativity and when my life became more about raising my family than the bright lights of show business exploring my photo art was a great outlet for me.
- Angela Cartwright

Rejection is a big part of show business. It can be tough on anyone who doesn't have fairly good self-esteem. Especially kids, as they try to discover who they are.
- Angela Cartwright

The "show business," which is so incorporated into our view of Christian work today, has caused us to drift far from Our Lord's conception of discipleship. It is instilled in us to think that we have to do exceptional things for God; we have not. We have to be exceptional in ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, surrounded by sordid sinners. That is not learned in five minutes.
- Oswald Chambers

The only thing harder than leaving show business is coming back.
- Dave Chappelle

I want to tell my jokes. I want to have time with my children. I want to entertain people. And at one point, I'll walk away from show business. But I don't want to walk away empty-handed.
- Dave Chappelle

There's no one I trust in show business more than Sabrina Wind. She's my eyes and ears when I can't be there. She weighs in on everything, from scripts to sets to advertising.
- Marc Cherry

Yeah, there was a six-year period where I was pretty much done with show business. During college and then for about two years after college.
- Anna Chlumsky

When I graduated from college I thought I was over with show business and was pursuing other things.
- Anna Chlumsky

There were a lot of signs being thrown at me, a lot of angels I was meeting, inspiring me to get back into show business.
- Anna Chlumsky

Show business got really tainted for me.
- Anna Chlumsky

Kids are brought into show business because they are cute and see truth and they're very bright. But there's a sense of doing it because you want the adults to be approving of you. You want to make them happy.
- Anna Chlumsky

When you're a child, no matter if you're doing show business or sports or school or anything, you just want to make the adults happy.
- Anna Chlumsky

I never called my work an 'art' It's part of show business, the business of building entertainment.
- Walt Disney

A lot of show business, as you know, is about all the contacts you make and who you know.
- Denise Crosby

Nobody in show business can possibly get away with making fun of their boss.
- Jon Cryer

I love the challenge of show business. It keeps me on my toes.
- Henry Darrow

Ask Mother for advice on breaking into show business.
- Jack Davenport

My home has always been show business.
- Sammy Davis Jr

Part of show business is magic. You don't know how it happens.
- Sammy Davis Jr

At home, we don't listen to our music-we listen to other people's music. It keeps you attached to the show business world.
- Celine Dion

I want to be more successful as a mother than I am in show business.
- Celine Dion

I have shared my whole life. My private and my show business life. It helps me actually to feel my songs and to go on with my dreams.
- Celine Dion

I learned everything that I know about comedy and about show business and a lot about life from Carl.
- Dick Van Dyke

I was always in show business but in many ways was not really of show business. I didn't move in show business circles, particularly, still don't do it.
- Dick Van Dyke

I just went to Harvard a little while, because I graduated from Armstrong High School in Washington and then I went up there but I didn't stay that long because I went into show business.
- Billy Eckstine

I was so enamored with the idea of being in show business so everything was bright to me. I mean, I didn't think of it as being tough and things like that.
- Billy Eckstine

I have a suspicion - and hear me out, 'cause this is a rough one - I have a suspicion that the definition of "crazy" in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to fuck her anymore.
- Tina Fey

[T]he definition of 'crazy' in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to fuck her anymore.
- Tina Fey

I came from a real working-class show business family.
- Sally Field

There was really a snobbery from people in film - they did not want people who had come from television. It was the poor relation of show business, and especially situation comedy.
- Sally Field

Boxing is just show business with blood.
- Bruno Frank

I would rather die than have my fans see me without a pair of heels on. And that's show business.
- Lady Gaga

No matter what the role, you're trying to do the impossible - make a living in show business.
- Peter Gallagher

I just needed a job. Before being hired as an usher at the CBS Theatre, I didn't even know there was a show business!
- David Geffen

I learned that kids in show business are so different from regular, average students. They would gather behind you and help you to succeed in any way possible.
- Wally George

There's nobody in show business that I dislike so I wouldn't want to get in there to hurt anybody.
- Robert Goulet

There are two reasons why I'm in show business, and I'm standing on both of them.
- Betty Grable

Show business offers more solid promises than Catholicism.
- John Guare

Show business is one of those things that people can use to get themselves out of the lower rung of society.
- Taylor Hackford

Buzz and the right publicist are not only important but crucial in show business.
- Halston

My show business career doesn't mean I can't write a symphony. It just means I was never asked to write one.
- Marvin Hamlisch

Oh damn and fuck show business and all its ways.
- David Hare

When you're in New York City or Los Angeles, even if you're not dealing with show business, there's still this sense that it's the center of the universe. And I think that's a really dangerous, limiting mindset.
- Ed Helms

I like being from a city that is not entrenched in show business. When you're in New York City or Los Angeles, even if you're not dealing with show business, there's still this sense that it's the center of the universe.
- Ed Helms

I tried to look presentable for a show, but not for sexual attraction. It was strictly for show business.
- Little Richard

That's what show business is, sincere insincerity.
- Benny Hill

Well, we're in show business, and I have been making a living in this business a long time and inevitably it means taking what it is that you've done and hopefully you're showing it to a lot of people who like it.
- Walter Hill

I always smoked cigars. I've smoked cigars with everybody in show business.
- Al Hirt

There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
- Billie Holiday

I thought I was learning about show business. The more painful it was, the more important I thought the experience must be. Hating it, I convinced myself it must be invaluable.
- Judy Holliday

I love my family very much. I wish I could see them a little more often than I do. But we understand because we're a show business family and we all work.
- Michael Jackson

That's pretty much why I went into show business because I wanted to have a guitar and sing unaccompanied, that was like my fantasy of the perfect life.
- Victoria Jackson

We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks-that's show business.
- Edward R Murrow

Playing music is the best thing in the world. It makes show business almost bearable.
- David Johansen

I knew real show business from my father, who had been an actor since he left the world of boxing.
- James Earl Jones

Going to New York to do whatever - show business - it just seemed fun. It seemed fun to go to the big city and meet all kinds of different people and maybe be famous. It was just exciting. So I wasn't scared.
- January Jones

In 40-odd years in show business, some years I could do no wrong, and some years I could do nothing right. Show business. I owe it everything - it owes me nothing.
- Patsy Kelly

I'm very leery of show business, having been in Los Angeles for the last 10 years. Buzz is a dangerous thing that I've heard applied to a lot of people that I've since not heard of again.
- Greg Kinnear

I said, to hell with the whole thing, to hell with show business. I'm gonna make a new life for myself, and I got off drugs, completely kicked all that stuff.
- Tommy Kirk

My name was originally John Collins, but I just didn't think it had the flair I needed. I found out the poet laureate of Poland was named Krasinski and so it seemed like a shoe-in for show business.
- John Krasinski

You've got to know business before you go to show business.
- Patti Labelle

Of course in show business there are two ways to play it and I am not politically correct so I am not going to get endorsements or anything like that.
- Artie Lange

Politics is just show business for ugly people.
- Jay Leno

Show business is the best possible therapy for remorse.
- Anita Loos

My father was adamant in his disapproval of my interest in show business.
- Paul Lynde

A lot of people say I'd miss show business if I quit. I'd miss some of it. Now it's the only life I know.
- Loretta Lynn

I never knew any Jews until I got into show business. I've found them to be real smart and good workers.
- Loretta Lynn

That's what I loved about show business, no two days were alike. It's an exciting life.
- Barbara Mandrell

Is it hard to make a living in show business? Yeah.
- Marc Maron

Show business is one of the few businesses that the devil will actually agree to own just a portion of your soul because he knows if you have a performer's ego you were probably working for him all along.
- Marc Maron

When I was in college, I was debating to try my hand at show business, or to become a professor. I just thought of the risk of not going into show business and always wondering if I would've had a chance. Because that's where my real heart was.
- Steve Martin

True friendships don't fade in Hollywood, as so many myths about show business would have you insist.
- Kent Mccord

The camera fails to capture the 'business' in show business! We typically will give 10 percent of our salary to the agent, 10 percent to the manager, and 5 percent to the lawyer, plus the publicist gets a flat fee, which needs to be budgeted for.
- Danica Mckellar

Everyone in show business has had the experience of the fan who is so excited at recognizing their favorite star, they say, 'Oh my gosh, you're my biggest fan!'
- Audrey Meadows

I'm fortunate that I'm employed. And if you're in show business, of course, every night you go to bed and go, oh my god, tomorrow I'll never, ever work again.
- Rick Mercer

Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.
- Ethel Merman

When I'm asked how to succeed in show business, I always say I haven't the foggiest.
- Ethel Merman

I looked at longevity in show business when I was about 13, and the people who seemed to have longevity were the ones who'd spent quite a bit of time learning about what they were doing before they made it.
- Paul Merton

To the general public, show business may just mean the artistic part, but the dollar and cents element is the reality every performer has to face.
- Liza Minelli

I hate show business.
- Joni Mitchell

Show business is just like high school, except you get paid.
- Martin Mull

All of us kids ended up 'doing Mom.' There are four of us who've tried show business. Five if you insist on counting my sister the nun, who does liturgical dance.
- Bill Murray

It's all been a bad joke that just ran out of control. I got into food for fun but the business got a mind of its own. Now - my good Lord - look where it has gotten me. My products are on supermarket shelves, in cinemas, in the theater. And they say show business is odd.
- Paul Newman

I have heard show business characterized as a refuge for childlike persons in flight from all things harsh and real.
- Carroll Oconnor

Vulgar and obscene, the papers run rumors daily about people in show business, tales of wicked ways and witless affairs.
- Carroll Oconnor

Show business is made up of disappointments, and it's through life's disappointments that you grow.
- Minnie Pearl

We have boys now, and men, in the rock and roll business and all the show business, who have this reaction on women. They scream. They yell. They do all sorts of wild things.
- Minnie Pearl

I have a girlfriend, but I don't really want to talk about her. I won't name her. She isn't in show business, has nothing to do with it. So I'd rather just keep her out of it.
- Luke Perry

I think it's a terrible shame that politics has become show business.
- Sydney Pollack

Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.
- Neil Postman

I am constantly asked why I never made other films after 'There's No Business Like Show Business,' the answer is I was never asked.
- Johnnie Ray

Most of the people I know in show business don't need anybody pushing them at all. They're extremely aggressive.
- Helen Reddy

I couldn't do anything. I'd work in a department store for a couple of weeks, but I couldn't hack it. I couldn't even type! I had no skills whatsoever outside of show business.
- Helen Reddy

There are times in show business when you work so much you think you will pop your cork, and then suddenly you can't find any work.
- Martha Reeves

Show business is my life. When I was a kid I sold insurance, but nobody laughed.
- Don Rickles

Los Angeles is such a town of show business, and I'm a terrible celebrity. I find it difficult - it's the beast that must be fed. There's this big wheel of pictures and articles that goes around, and you get pinned on it.
- Julia Roberts

I'm in show business... I want to hang out with Janet Jackson, not Jesse Jackson.
- Chris Rock

I'm an introvert at heart... And show business - even though I've loved it so much - has always been hard for me.
- Roy Rogers

Years ago I wanted to buy an apartment in New York City. I was a single female - I had gone through my divorce - I had three children, I was in show business and black. It was, like, impossible.
- Diana Ross

I'm a parent, and I try to take care of my health and keep my life in order. In the last few years I've really had to decide what's important to me, and it seems to me that my family and my health are top on the list. And those have nothing to do with show business.
- Diana Ross

I think it's one of the main negative emotional ingredients that fuels show business, because there's so much at stake and the fear of failure looms large.
- Garry Shandling

As far as show business, it's the gratification of doing something that pleases the fans.
- Bobby Sherman

In show business, if you make a mistake, you can do it over again.
- Bobby Sherman

I've had 79 to 80 years of show business. I started when I was 5 with a man called Tom Mix. I didn't have time to go to school because I was in silent movies, I was in radio, I was in burlesque, I worked with the circus. I'm all show business!
- George Sidney

And, you know, when you are a kid, everybody wants to be an actor. I think that everybody wants to be in show business, frankly.
- Brent Spiner

I think it's the business part of the word show business that causes me the most concern.
- Brent Spiner

If you look around at the people in show business today they are basically the people who didn't give up.
- Brent Spiner

There is no question that everybody who works in show business is lucky because of the number of people who wish they where working in show business.
- Brent Spiner

I was brought up in the modern world of all the luxury and the highlight of show business. I was born into a Christian home.
- Cat Stevens

Show business has been really, really good to me because I can work and take a lot of time off, and I'm extremely undisciplined person.
- Meryl Streep

I love every aspect of show business and that includes both the show part of it and the business part of it.
- Kristy Swanson

I have a funny family, but none of them are remotely in show business.
- Wanda Sykes

Success in show business depends on your ability to make and keep friends.
- Sophie Tucker

I didn't get here for my acting... but I love show business.
- Ted Turner

I think one of the most difficult challenges in show business is the challenge of longevity and to constantly realize and reveal what's already been there - like doing stage and singing and dancing in New York. I haven't been that far out of my comfort zone in a while.
- Blair Underwood

I think the fact that I was raised in show business, in New York City, in the '50s, that's affected my personality to the point that I'm a little different.
- Christopher Walken

I think that if I had grown up and had been in show business and the movies twenty five, thirty years earlier, I think I would have made a lot more musical movies.
- Christopher Walken

Well, I was sort of a jack-of-all-trades in show business for a long time. I was a singer and a dancer and then I got a job as an actor.
- Christopher Walken

I've made movies that I thought were good. I've made movies that I thought were okay, but then I was very good. And sometimes you're in a movie and you think, I wish more people saw that - because you're good. And it just works out that the movie gets lost. But that's show business.
- Christopher Walken

I think early on I knew what I was going to do and it was based a lot on familiarity but it was also because I didn't have a lot of skills. There was nothing I wanted t be. I didn't want to be a doctor. I wanted to be in show business.
- Christopher Walken

Mom never quit on me. My only regret is that she didn't live long enough to share some of the money and comforts my work in show business has brought me.
- Ethel Waters

There is a great supply of amateur undertakers in show business.
- Ethel Waters

If there's any business that instructs you in the strong hand of fate, it's show business. You can plan and plan, but it's what happens to you that really determines what your career will be like.
- Sam Waterston

I don't mean to sound - I don't want it to come out funny, but I don't like show business. I love - I love acting in films. I love it.
- Gene Wilder

I guess I've never really been aggressive, although almost everybody else in show business fights and gouges and knees to get where they want to be.
- Andy Williams

It's show business. No show, no business.
- Dick Wolf