Creativity Quote by Kitty Carlisle

Kitty Carlisle turns a medical detail into a little vaudeville grenade: the punchline is that her flaw arrived so early it may as well be part of the birth certificate. “Right after that” lands like a rimshot, compressing a lifetime of accommodation into a brisk, deadpan beat. It’s not self-pity; it’s self-direction. Nearsightedness becomes a prop she controls, not a label that controls her.

The intent is twofold. First, she’s flattening vulnerability into something portable and shareable, the way performers often do when they need an origin story that doesn’t beg for sympathy. Second, she’s signaling competence. Glasses aren’t a tragedy here; they’re stagecraft. If you can’t see, you adjust, you hit your mark anyway. That’s a working artist’s ethic disguised as a joke.

The subtext is also about image. Carlisle lived in an era when women in entertainment were expected to look effortless, even when they were managing constant corrections - physical, professional, social. By framing the fix as immediate, she refuses the melodrama of “overcoming” and replaces it with an almost glamorous practicality: problem, solution, move on. It’s a sly assertion of agency.

Context matters: Carlisle wasn’t just a musician; she was a polished public personality (radio, television, the social circuit). The line reads like someone who understood that wit is armor, and that a crisp, controlled laugh can be more revealing than confession.