I Said Yes to Everything Quotes

“Somehow he promised each of us a great romance, without a touch or a word. He was an accomplished tease.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“I did a documentary on Farrah for Lifetime. Actually, a do-over documentary, because Farrah didn’t like the way she looked in the first one. And she was right.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“The stewardess was none other than Brenda Vaccaro, my great friend in real life. Brenda decks me. I fall to the floor of the plane, out of commission. She’s saved the day. Brenda and I took longer to do our fight scene than any of our other scenes, because we fell down laughing for three takes. The wonderful absurdity of my turning the heavy wheel to open the plane door, her hand on my shoulder, turning me to look at her cute face, then doing our rehearsed one, two, three punches and shoves, just broke us up. My legs were jelly, I was wheezing with laughter—it was the closest I’d gotten to being in a school play. Sympathy for our nervous young director pulled us together just enough to get through it.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“Around eighteen, Dinah suddenly became interested in acting. I worked with her on This Property Is Condemned, a Tennessee Williams one-act, for her audition for the Actors Studio. Then came Marty Maraschino in Grease, then a running part in Soap, a hot TV series. Then the lead in Neil Simon’s play I Ought to Be in Pictures. She was accepted by the Studio and quickly hired by Robert Redford as the girl in Ordinary People who commits suicide.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“I saw Warren’s eyes attach themselves to something in the distance. I turned around and saw in the next room, the dining room, Dolly Parton, quietly sitting at the table, alone, scribbling on a pad. In an instant, I could feel myself dropped as this new yummy dish was making Warren’s mouth water. He actually licked his lips as he left me on the couch and sat down next to her at the table. I followed him like a jilted wife, jealous, clumsy. I needn’t have bothered; Dolly was immune. Warren tried the whole deck of cards. Dolly concentrated on her numbers, adding, subtracting, and smiling adorably at his attempts. Watching her, I couldn’t blame him for trying. It was 1975. Dolly was all cream and roses, just astonishing and nice.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“(Alfred’s sister, Olive Deering, was famous in those years for her sentiments during her filming of the endless DeMille epic The Ten Commandments: “Who do I have to fuck to get off this picture?”)”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“He brought over a gold box and opened it. Inside were chocolates wrapped in foil. Billy sat down close to me. “Life,” he said, “is like a box of bonbons. Some dark with chocolate filling; some with cherries. But you never know till you open the silver wrapper what life holds for you.” He held my hand and squeezed it. I squeezed back.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“Things happen in your life that leave an imprint. Injustice left the deepest imprint on mine.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir

“I’ve reinvented myself many times over, picked up my broken wings and flapped till I could hop around again. I’m flying again now, in my bedroom, writing, looking out my window. I had no idea, until I began putting pen to paper, that so many memories were inside me waiting to be rediscovered. I’m very lucky. I may even come to know myself.”
― Lee Grant, I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir