Ruth Gordon: YES
"People come up to me and tell me they're trying to be an actor, and I say, Go for it! Do it! We need you. I say YES."
Question: "Who was the person who said 'It takes one person to say YES to make everything change?' Was it you, was it Garson [Kanin]? Tennessee [Williams] told me about you saying it to him...
Ruth Gordon: "Oh, what does it matter who said it first? I've said it. Gar has said it. Marian Seldes has said it. Edith Evans has said it. Everybody who was told to sit down and stop dreaming has said it because it happened for them and they believe it.
"I did say 'Never face facts' because they are so often wrong. I was told I was ugly, had a terrible voice, had no future. Well, fuck 'em! Here I am. I'm almost 88 and here we are talking, and I just saw someone on the street and told them to never stop dreaming. I said YES to them. Can you imagine life if we just told more people YES, YES, keep going. Keep showing up. Julie Harris, I think, was told she looked like an unshelled peanut. Check on that. I think it's true. Lynn Fontanne was told she was helpless. Ugly. I mean, what do they know? Who's THEY?
"I came from good people with no money. I think all the time about what it took for my father to stake me the money to get to New York and pursue my dream. That was a lot of money. He said YES. Helen Hayes saw I was broke and not eating and getting down, and she gave me money. She said YES. The First Lady of the Theatre said YES to me. I'm gonna say YES to as many people as possible. I said YES to Tennessee Williams because he stupidly listened to people who told him he was dried up, that he didn't matter. He called me and Gar the hind legs of the theatre. NO! He was a great writer. HE was the hind legs of the American theatre! YES, I said to him. You matter. Keep writing.
"People come up to me and tell me they're trying to be an actor, and I say, Go for it! Do it! We need you. I say YES. Do I know if they're good? No. Do I know anything at all about them except this: They are dreaming humans just as I was, as I am, and we need them. I need them. So YES. YES. YES. YES. YES."--Ruth Godon/Interview with James Grissom/1984
Photograph of Ruth Gordon by Richard Avedon for Vogue, 1971