Parenting & Family Quote by Harvey Fierstein

The dash-heavy insistence is the point: Fierstein isn’t just pleased, he’s performing relief. “Thrilled - I can’t stress that enough - thrilled” reads like someone who’s watched a cultural tide go the wrong way for a long time and now wants to grab the microphone before cynicism has a chance. As an actor, he knows repetition isn’t redundancy; it’s emphasis you can hear. The line begs to be spoken aloud, with breath and timing doing as much work as the words.

On the surface, it’s a cheer for youth fitness. Underneath, it’s a small protest against the default setting of modern childhood: sedentary entertainment, screen-loop dopamine, safety anxieties that keep kids indoors, schools trimming recess, communities built for cars, not bikes. “Kids getting active” is strategically broad, too. It dodges the moralizing vibe of “exercise” or “sports” and instead frames movement as access and joy. That matters coming from a performer whose career has often centered outsiders; the subtext is that “active” can include everyone, not just the naturally athletic or socially rewarded.

There’s also a generational note: Fierstein’s era watched public-health scares arrive in waves, from drugs to HIV/AIDS to obesity discourse, each with its own shame economies. His “thrilled” rejects shame and goes for affirmation. The quote works because it’s not policy language; it’s a visceral endorsement of kids reclaiming their bodies in a culture that keeps offering reasons not to.