The disease I have is quite a rare cancer and it is located in a limited area -- a very widespread area, but narrow, so a lot can happen if the cancer starts getting really aggressive, pressing on parts of the brain and causing me to lose either my speech or my ability to think, etc.

Valerie Harper

Categorized in : Entertainment

However motherhood comes to you, it's a miracle.

Valerie Harper

adoption motherhood inspirational

Be grateful for each moment we have and be happy, but more than anything live it fully.

Valerie Harper

be-grateful grateful moments

Life is amazing. Live it to the fullest. Stay as long as you can.

Valerie Harper

life-is-amazing life-is long

I heard that someone asked Mother Teresa what was most important in her work. I thought she'd say the Rosary but she said, 'My nuns and I take very good care of ourselves so we can tend to the lepers and do whatever we need to assist.' If you're strong, or at least not hurting, you can inspire others.

Valerie Harper

strong mother success

I don’t think of dying, I think of being here now.

Valerie Harper

dying thinking

When I was younger I'd berate myself: You're fat, you're not a good dancer, you'll never have a boyfriend. I don't sweat that kind of stuff anymore. Now every day is a miracle. I've also learned that if something is painful or upsetting, you shouldn't hide from it. You should make it part of your life instead.

Valerie Harper

dancer sweat success

Don't miss your life.

Valerie Harper

cancer fighting missing

Don't go to the funeral until the day of the funeral - live this day.

Valerie Harper

this-day funeral

I used to get some ego thing out of saying I wasn't a star, just an actress. Forget it. I'm a star. I wanted it. I worked for it. I got it.

Valerie Harper

actresses ego stars

I'm painfully middle class.

Valerie Harper

middle-class middle class

Dessert doesn't count if you eat under an assumed identity.

Valerie Harper

dessert identity ifs

In a one-woman show, there must be compelling material that you adore. In both of these there are conversations with you and another character. My Second City (improvisation) background comes in very handy for accent and body posture.

Valerie Harper

body cities character

My husband was the one who caught it, my husband was the one who got it going. My husband is the one who got me in the hospital. It was incredible.

Valerie Harper

entertainment

The doctors can give you only their guesstimate of what they see with this disease. I have been extremely lucky. Yet, it’s still terminal and incurable – ‘so far,’ as my husband, Tony says. if I had to choose between walking across the street and getting hit by car and killed – boom – just like that, or knowing what’s coming, I’d take this.

Valerie Harper

entertainment

Every day they are coming up with new stuff, there’s now an immunotherapy that builds up your immune system to fight the cancer… I want to make sure that people understand there are possibilities. I’m a perfect person to tell people not to give up.

Valerie Harper

entertainment

Forgiving is giving up the wish that things could have been different. They weren't. That's the past. Let it go.

Valerie Harper

giving-up wish giving past

Life has sweetness to it and a beauty and a power that I wanted to celebrate.

Valerie Harper

celebrate power beauty life

Really appreciate the sunset as you're driving home, cursing all the terrible drivers on the road. Be where you are when you're there rather than out there in the future or back there in the past.

Valerie Harper

you sunset future home

Cancer reminds me of a very bad but tenacious performer who, although no one wants to see, insists on doing an encore, having a return engagement, making a comeback and, worst of all, going on tour.

Valerie Harper

doing bad me comeback

Knowing that you have something you have to deal with, rising to the occasion, builds character.

Valerie Harper

something you knowing character