Carol Channing

The distinction between male and female will never stop existing. We are not alike, and I wouldn't want to be.

It's a terrible thing to admit, but I'm not sure I know what Women's Lib is.

I've gone on in a wheelchair. Another performance I did with no voice - and I had to apologize to the audience and whisper.

I can't understand people missing a show because they're sick: They've missed their best performance. You have an obstacle to overcome, and you reach for the heavens, and, doggone it, the heavens answer you.

I still meet with friends, and I'm enjoying life at 97 here in Palm Springs. They are trying to establish a new theater here in the desert, and if they raise enough money, I understand they might be calling it The Carol Channing Playhouse. Wouldn't that be wonderful? What an honor that would be.

There are a lot of actors that don't like touring and will do just about anything to get out of it, but I loved it. I loved the cities, the people, and the new experiences it offered.

At first I felt terrible, then I realized... that no matter what I do the rest of my life... I'll never do anything as distinguished as getting on Nixon's enemy list.

He wrote himself into the role of Dolly. Dolly was hilariously funny and didn't know it. And that's what Thornton Wilder was. He was an adorable man.

I kept thinking that the audience had gone to so much trouble, working their schedules to be there. They had arranged for babysitters and even traveled in from out of town. Oh, how could I not be there for them?

I don't hate Charles. I just want my life to count for something. Everyone thinks I just walked out on a paralyzed man. But after he had his stroke, he couldn't hang on to me. And I realized for the first time that I was at peace.

We couldn't let anyone know about it at the time, but I wasn't all that healthy at times. I was battling cancer and had to have treatment in New York once a week, so Mr. Merrick arranged for me to fly out after the show on Sunday, from wherever we were touring, to see my doctor on Monday and fly back in time for the show on Tuesday.

I am finally a lady of leisure, and it suits me fine. For the first time in almost 10 decades, I don't have an agenda or a structure to my days.