Creativity Quote by Patti LuPone

Patti LuPone is doing two things at once here: puncturing the “diva” caricature and keeping the sparkle that makes the caricature cling. The line opens with “I’m totally Italian,” a wink at the stereotype’s engine room - passion, volume, temperament - then immediately swerves into a denial: “but I’m not a diva.” It’s a rhetorical judo move. She acknowledges the cultural shorthand the audience already carries, then flips it to control the narrative before it controls her.

The subtext isn’t just humility; it’s a bid for authority. In theater culture, “diva” is rarely neutral. It can mean excellence and command, but it’s also the gendered workplace euphemism for “difficult” - a label that follows powerful women faster than it follows men with the same demands. By insisting her daily life doesn’t match the costume of celebrity (“If you could see the way I’m dressed…”), LuPone separates craft from branding. She’s arguing that what reads as diva behavior onstage or in rehearsal is professionalism, not vanity.

“Appearances are so not important to me” lands as both defense and critique. In an industry built on image, she’s framing herself as an artist who refuses the obligatory performance of “likability” and polish offstage. It’s also a canny reset of the public’s gaze: stop auditing my outfits and start listening to the work. The irony is that even rejecting the diva myth requires staging a persona. LuPone just stages one with boots-on-the-ground credibility.