49 quotes found
“As a teenager in Brooklyn Quentin had often imagined himself engaged in martial heroics, but after this he knew, as a cold immutable fact, that he would do anything necessary, sacrificing whatever ...”
“Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer?”
“Your technique means nothing if you're not using your talents for the betterment of humanity.”
“Even the worst things about Devonairre Street are better than the rest of the city.”
“I had a blind date with a dentist and he told me to come back in six months.”
“People say it is not the key to happiness, but I have always figured if you have enough money you can have a key made.”
“I said, "Is there!" I told him there is a Mafia school where they teach them math if Johnny has ten fingers and they cut off two, how many does he have left?”
“Somehow, some way, every person in the arts has to find an accommodation with disappointment and embarrassment. They are the pollen in the air we breathe.”
“It gathers emotionally inside you, in a strange way a by-product of struggle, of a willingness to do anything, try anything, expose yourself to anything staying in motion because sooner or later t...”
“Laughing made me feel safe. I was not going to be enveloped by the seediness that coated this world like dust.”
“When you begin to losing your audience, do not get loud; get quiet, make them find you and come back to you.”
“I am driven. Being driven is my energy source. It is my fun.I believe that where there is action, there is movement, and those ripples will eventually produce something positive.”
“The revelation that personal truth can be the foundation of comedy, that outrageousness can be cleansing and healthy”
“The act of creation fascinates me. You can only sit with blank page and wait. You cannot press a button, cannot program it.”
“Everything comes out of smoke and mist and nothingness, a mystical happening”
“Liked" was the kiss of death. "Loved" or "hated" interested him. At least the performer had aroused emotion.”
“Maybe that is why in my comedy I try and puncture the hypocrisy all around us, why it is almost a crusade with me to strip life down to what really is true.”
“but I think comedy is more aggressive than that. It is a medium for revenge. We can deflate and punish the pomposity and the rejection which hurt us. Comedy is power.”
“you either do or do not have a comedy mind, whatever that is, maybe a heightened sense of the ridiculous and the absurdity of lifeWe are all crazy and crazed.”
“Well, I didn't really know what to say. So maybe I should say that I have thought about you and I like you, I like seeing you, I care for you and maybe I love you too. And the next time if you tell...”
