Streisand / Television

Oprah: Are there moments when you step back yourself and you are amazed by your own ...

Barbra:... Achievement? I do it every day, and that, I think, is wonderful about growing older, is appreciation for the miracle of existence, of life. I thank God every day. I also do believe that belief and imagination manifests reality. And therefore, even though it took twenty-five years, I did find the house, eventually, and the man I could live with.

Do you know what happened to me once? Deepak Chopra once gave me a book that I didn't get a chance to read. And I come to New York, and the New York apartment had boxes of flowers. My bedroom was pale blue with off-white. So the flowers that I planted outside this room could only be powder blue, off-white, and there were many pink touches—pink with the blue and white flowers...

Oprah: I know there was no orange there.

Barbra: No orange! So I called up the girl who used to get flowers for me when I arrived in New York, and told her to plant the flowers on the terrace, right? I come to New York, and the flowers are rust-colored mums, and yellow.

Oprah: (joking) Oh my goodness. Where is that girl today? (audience laughs)

Barbra: Well, it was awful. How do you look out the window? Rust and yellow mums outside this pink and blue room, right? I couldn't kill them, I couldn't destroy them, I couldn't throw them out. So I just closed my lace curtains so I didn't have to see them. So, my friend Cis was sitting in the chair and she peeks through the lace and she says, ‘Oh, you changed the flowers.’ I said, ‘No I didn't.’ The flowers—the rust color had faded to pink, the yellow had faded to white. So, now I call up the girl who planted them and I said, ‘What is this, a new variety of mum that changes colors?’ She says, ‘No they're just ordinary mums.’ And I called Deepak. ‘How is this happening? What happened? How can this be possible?’ He says, ‘You haven't read my book yet. Look at chapter fourteen.’

Oprah: Don't tell me you manifested the color?

Barbra: Well, the chapter was called “Desire.” And I knew I had a strong will-power, I have a strong will-power. He said, Because you wanted it. 

Oprah: You don't think maybe the sun had something to do with it?

Barbra: Probably. Whatever! I think there's something so powerful about the will, about desire. And it's not ruthless. It's not where you hurt somebody to get what you want. It's very quiet. It's very inner. It's a strength that's deep in the core of your being.

Another break, then Streisand addressed those rumors that she's retired.

Barbra: By the way, I did not retire. You know, I made an album and I read, ‘I thought she retired.’ Whoever said I retired? I didn't retire from making records, I didn't retire from making movies. I retired from doing those very big productions, where I enjoy being the creator, the director, and conceiving things and having it be—but then you have to do it every night? Sing thirty songs a night, you know, you get tired. And your feet hurt in these high heels.



And on her renowned stage fright: 



Barbra: Yes, I had palpitations. But I didn't realize they now have a pill for it. So, it's a great thing. It actually stops the adrenaline from flowing so hard. 



In the next segment, a Streisand fan named Valencia and her daughter Streisand (yes, she was named after Barbra!) gave hugs to Oprah and Barbra. “God, you do wonderful things. You make so many people happy,” Barbra said to Oprah.



After Barbra sang a lovely version of “Smile” (dedicated to her boy dog, Sammy, who she had to put to sleep the day she recorded the song), Barbra's new dog came out on stage. Streisand explained: “I went into an antique store, I didn't know when I could get a new dog. And my friend had this little dog. This is a coton. My husband saw how much I loved this little dog that my friend had, and he bought it for me for our fifth anniversary. And she's a girl named Samantha, after Sammy. She's my new little girl Sammy.”



An additional hour with Streisand, called Oprah After the Show, was broadcast on the Oxygen Network. After changing from heels to boots, Streisand was asked questions from audience members.

Below: The comedian Kathy Griffin famously worked the Oprah/Streisand episode into her act. Griffin found it funny that Barbra sprayed Oprah's microphone white (to match her sweater) and assumed there was some sort of Diva Fight involved.  MadTV also did a comedy skit about the interview.

End / The Oprah Winfrey Show 2003 Interview