"My grandmother and I followed my mother here, to a house a block north of Hollywood Boulevard but a million miles away from Hollywood, if you know what I mean. We would hang out behind the ropes and look at the movie stars arriving at the premieres"
About this Quote
The detail that does the real work is "behind the ropes". Those ropes are literal crowd control at premieres, but they’re also the social architecture of the industry: who gets to glide into the theater and who gets arranged as scenery for the cameras. Burnett’s choice of "hang out" keeps the tone loose, kid-level, almost casual, which makes the divide feel more cruel because it’s normalized. This is what looking in from the outside feels like when you don’t yet have the language to call it inequality.
The family constellation matters, too: grandmother, mother, child. It’s a quiet portrait of women navigating precarity and aspiration together, trailing opportunity without being invited to it. Burnett is signaling the origin story of her comedy without spelling it out: sharp observational humor forged from watching performances up close while living far from the fantasy. The subtext is gratitude mixed with a wry awareness that Hollywood sells dreams best to the people kept at arm’s length from them.
Quote Details
| Topic | Grandparents |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Burnett, Carol. (2026, January 16). My grandmother and I followed my mother here, to a house a block north of Hollywood Boulevard but a million miles away from Hollywood, if you know what I mean. We would hang out behind the ropes and look at the movie stars arriving at the premieres. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-grandmother-and-i-followed-my-mother-here-to-a-98934/
Chicago Style
Burnett, Carol. "My grandmother and I followed my mother here, to a house a block north of Hollywood Boulevard but a million miles away from Hollywood, if you know what I mean. We would hang out behind the ropes and look at the movie stars arriving at the premieres." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-grandmother-and-i-followed-my-mother-here-to-a-98934/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My grandmother and I followed my mother here, to a house a block north of Hollywood Boulevard but a million miles away from Hollywood, if you know what I mean. We would hang out behind the ropes and look at the movie stars arriving at the premieres." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-grandmother-and-i-followed-my-mother-here-to-a-98934/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.
