"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly... very slowly"
About this Quote
A little moral proverb wanders onto the stage and comes back wearing sequins. Gypsy Rose Lee takes the stiff-backed slogan "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well" and gives it a slow, knowing striptease: not better, slower. The ellipsis is the wink. The repetition - "slowly... very slowly" - drags time out on purpose, turning patience into performance.
As an entertainer who made her name in burlesque, Lee understood that anticipation is the product. The audience isn’t paying for the end; they’re paying for the stretch, the tease, the calibrated delay that makes desire louder. Read that way, the line isn’t laziness dressed up as wisdom. It’s a professional principle: control the tempo, control the room. "Very slowly" is craft, not coyness.
The subtext also needles America’s efficiency fetish. In a culture that worships speed and productivity, Lee flips the script: slowness can be more precise, more profitable, more powerful. It’s a cheeky critique of puritan earnestness, too. The original proverb is about virtue; Lee’s version is about pleasure and agency, especially female agency. She’s not asking permission to take her time. She’s announcing that taking her time is the point.
Context matters: mid-century showbiz demanded women be instantly legible - sexy, sweet, disposable. Lee’s slowness is refusal. She makes delay into leverage, turning the clock into a spotlight she controls.
As an entertainer who made her name in burlesque, Lee understood that anticipation is the product. The audience isn’t paying for the end; they’re paying for the stretch, the tease, the calibrated delay that makes desire louder. Read that way, the line isn’t laziness dressed up as wisdom. It’s a professional principle: control the tempo, control the room. "Very slowly" is craft, not coyness.
The subtext also needles America’s efficiency fetish. In a culture that worships speed and productivity, Lee flips the script: slowness can be more precise, more profitable, more powerful. It’s a cheeky critique of puritan earnestness, too. The original proverb is about virtue; Lee’s version is about pleasure and agency, especially female agency. She’s not asking permission to take her time. She’s announcing that taking her time is the point.
Context matters: mid-century showbiz demanded women be instantly legible - sexy, sweet, disposable. Lee’s slowness is refusal. She makes delay into leverage, turning the clock into a spotlight she controls.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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