Photography by Charles Sykes/Invision for Clio Awards/AP Images
2019 Clio Awards 60th Anniversary
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR CLIO AWARDS - Clio Awards host Andy Cohen on the red carpet at the 60th Annual Clio Awards at The Manhattan Center on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision for Clio Awards/AP Images)
In the rush that is Andy Cohen’s life in New York City, he finds moments in which he can close his eyes and transport himself back to the bustling kitchen of his childhood home in St. Louis.
“My mom, Evelyn, would say things like, ‘You’re playing marbles on the Lord’s coattails, Andy,’ which would essentially mean, ‘You’re skating on thin ice,’” the 53-year-old Cohen recalls. “She would say, ‘Get ahold of yourself,’ which, when it came out of my mom’s mouth, was like a slap in the face. It caused me to, in fact, get ahold of myself. And even to this day, she always says it at just the right time, like when I really need to get a grip.”
It’s these and many other “serious and silly” meditations, as Cohen calls them, that he’s collected in his new book, Glitter Every Day: 365 Quotes from Women I Love.
“My life has been shaped by women,” says the host of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “And now with the Housewives, they have become sources of great pleasure and pain and drama and everything else.” Cohen laughs, but yes, even tidbits of advice from several members of The Real Housewives franchise have found their way into the uplifting book. (For 10 years at Bravo, Cohen oversaw the Real Housewives franchise.) Cohen includes stories in the book about why he picked each quote, and sprinkled among the Bravolebrities, find words of wisdom from Aretha Franklin, Oprah Winfrey, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Of course, this is not the first time Cohen has put pen to paper. He’s the author of several New York Times–bestselling books, including Most Talkative and Superficial. “I love writing,” he says. “Once you find your voice, there’s something very freeing about using it. It’s fun and it’s different and it’s personal and it’s permanent. But it’s also scary because you’re putting something out there in ink for other people to read and judge. But hopefully, it makes people kind of inspired and laugh.”
And maybe, someday, Cohen’s 2-year-old son, Benjamin, will sit down and have a read.
“I think that there are things that I wouldn’t put into print now that I would have had absolutely no problem writing about before him,” Cohen says with a laugh.
Glitter Every Day: 365 Quotes from Women I Love is out November 2.
Cohen's Book Club
Three more must-reads from the Bravo star
Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture, 2012
From a young age, Cohen was obsessed with television, and Most Talkative traces his rise from CBS News intern to Bravo’s reality hitmaker. (The memoir’s worth reading for young Andy’s letters from Camp Nebagamon alone. An especially tender excerpt: “Dear Mom and Dad, I am so excited about seeing cable. I know you will love it.”)
The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year, 2014
Cohen’s followup memoir focuses on a single year of his life, 2013, and it’s inspired by a different Andy’s book: The Andy Warhol Diaries, which Cohen pored over as an intern at CBS. Cohen’s Diaries is equally dishy but still delivers on the day-in-the-life details you’d expect. Jimmy Fallon called it the “literary equivalent of a Fresca and tequila.”
Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries, 2016
Cohen doubles down on the gossip in this followup to his 2014 book. We most loved the details of Joan Rivers’ funeral: Audra McDonald, Hugh Jackman, and the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus all sang; and Cohen sat with Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Kristin Chenoweth, Kathy Griffin, and Rosie O’Donnell. Howard Stern delivered a eulogy—the opener of which we cannot print.
