Quote of the Day

 

I was on [The Tonight Show] in 1973, and [Johnny] Carson said to me, "You're not married, are you?" And I said, "No." And he said, "Don't you want to have any children?" You could hear the audience stop dead. Because as a female, even to say you didn't necessarily want to have a child or act out the traditional role of any kind was heavy. And the audience was like — a pin could drop. And I said, "No, I don't want to have any children" or something like that. Then I said, "I like children but I don't really want to have any children and raise them." There was kind of a tense moment there, so I said to Carson, "Who has custody of yours?" Because I knew he didn't. I sort of laughed it off. 

But even to make a public statement like that was kind of hard to do in those days. "What's wrong with her? She's not maternal? She doesn't want to be a mother? She doesn't want to be a wife?"

[Being a parent is] perfectly fine for somebody who wants to. But at that time I didn't want to — and I'm glad I don't — have any children. God only knows what I would have done with them, poor things. I really do like kids, but there wouldn't have been room in my life to raise children. I was so involved with my career, and I would have had to give up the career in large part because I could not possibly have shortchanged the child.

— Lily Tomlin.

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