“My mother once told me never be a second-rate version of somebody else when you can be a first-rate version of yourself.”

— Liza Minnelli

"[G]racefully handl[ing] audience demands for 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,'" as quoted in "Coy Minnelli wows spirited audience; UM announces MCA construction" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LQY1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=QE8KAAAAIBAJ&pg=3215%2C676019 by Alicia Amstead, in The Bangor Daily News (September 18, 2006), p. A10

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Liza Minnelli 9

American actress and singer 1946

Related quotes

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States

As quoted in Business Etiquette for the Nineties : Your Ticket to Career Success (1992) by Lou Kennedy, p. 8
Variant: Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.

“I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of anybody.”

Liza Minnelli (1946) American actress and singer

Liza Minelli, interviewed by Gene Shalit in the September 1977 issue of The Ladies Home Journal, as quoted in "Women in the News," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yXMjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a2cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5851%2C3647577 in The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (August 24, 1977), p. 6-D
Variant: But I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of somebody else.
Context: I don't sing them because I couldn't sing them as well as she did. I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of anybody.

“I would rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama.”

Liza Minnelli (1946) American actress and singer

Liza Minelli, as quoted in I Remember It Well (1975) by Vincente Minelli with Hector Arce, p. 395 https://books.google.com/books?id=D6jDtmiJCpkC&q=minelli+%22second-rate%22+%22first-rate+version%22&dq=minelli+%22second-rate%22+%22first-rate+version%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBGoVChMI0on3sqjdxgIVxHg-Ch1NhwVD; reprinted in "Judy and Liza, Part 3" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CfpjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WuYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7188%2C5401411 by Vincente Minelli, in The Sydney Herald (August 15, 1975), p. 8
Context: I couldn't sing Mama's special songs. I couldn't do them as well. I would rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama.

“Liza Minelli said she can't sing well enough those "special songs" of her late mother, Judy Garland, so she doesn't sing them at all. The award-winning entertainer said she'd "rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama."”

Liza Minnelli (1946) American actress and singer

As paraphrased and quoted in "News Spotlight," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=S8cxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PIYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6062%2C6382171 The Kingsport Daily News (December 11, 1974), p. 9

“I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

War with Honour http://books.google.com/books?id=QmQDAAAAMAAJ&q="I+wrote+somewhere+once+that+the+third+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+thinking+with+the+majority+the+second+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+with+the+minority+and+a+first+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+thinking", Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940).

“First rate mathematicians choose first rate people, but second rate mathematicians choose third rate people.”

André Weil (1906–1998) French mathematician

As quoted in Comic Sections (Dublin 1993) by D MacHale

“The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but a first-rate writer can only be experienced. It is just the thing in him which escapes analysis that makes him first-rate.”

Willa Cather (1873–1947) American writer and novelist

Katherine Mansfield (1925)

“First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Ibid.
Essays and reviews, From the Land of Shadows (1982)

“What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Anna Wulf, in "Free Women: 2"
Source: The Golden Notebook (1962)
Context: It seems to me like this. It's not a terrible thing — I mean, it may be terrible, but it's not damaging, it's not poisoning, to do without something one really wants. It's not bad to say: My work is not what I really want, I'm capable of doing something bigger. Or I'm a person who needs love, and I'm doing without it. What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

“Never follow a dog act. You know you're on the skids when you play yourself in the movie version of your life.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Erica Jong's father (a musician, songwriter and later business man), his two pieces of advice for her. Given in the Times Literary Supplement, 7 October 1994, page 44.
Other

“My mother once told me never be a second-rate version of somebody else when you can be a first-rate version of yourself.”

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