Comedy Quotes | Beyond Motive

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Comedy Quotes

"My new movie, Fools Rush In, is a romantic comedy and the girl I play in that is very warm, very sweet."

Salma Hayek, Mexican Actress

Comedy, Fools, Play, Romantic

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"One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria."

V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian Novelist

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"Nobody should try to play comedy unless they have a circus going on inside."

Ernst Lubitsch, German Director

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"The difference between tragedy and comedy: Tragedy is something awful happening to somebody else, while comedy is something awful happening to somebody else."

Aaron Allston, American Novelist

Comedy, Difference, Tragedy

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"I wear so many disguises on the show that only a real comedy fan might spot me."

Paul Putner, English Comedian

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"Most modern comedy is crap."

Adrian Edmondson, English Actor

"And you can't hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit."

Jennifer Garner, American Actress

"I think that for the most part, when I started doing comedy, it had become very commercialized."

Larry David, American Actor

"With While You Were Sleeping, it was so much fun and such a Cinderella story, that I didn't want to do another romantic comedy. I wanted to do the opposite."

Bill Pullman, American Actor

Comedy, Fun, Romantic, Want

"I was in the Air Force and was a boom operator (in-flight refueling). I got my comedy start in the Air Force."

Sinbad, American Comedian

"Blonde is dumb comedy, red hair is smart, sexy comedy."

Lisa Kudrow, American Actress

Comedy, Dumb, Hair

"It is really hard to do comedy; it takes a lot of energy and focus. It's rather like music: It's a lot of hitting notes precisely."

Christine Baranski, American Actress

Comedy, Energy, Focus

"I enjoy doing everything, comedy and drama. I just look for the characters really and what they offer."

Chiwetel Ejiofor, British Actor

"The radio was my big influence. Comedy came from the instinctual feel I had for language."

Dominic Chianese, American Actor

Comedy, Influence, Language

"Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited."

John Cleese, English Actor

"I would recommend that anyone who wants to do comedy on TV to do radio first."

David Walliams, British Actor

"I think it would be harder for me not to write comedy because the comic view of things is the one that comes most naturally to me."

Richard Russo, American Novelist

"Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off."

Dick Wolf, American Producer

Comedy, Drama, Programming

"It's always been said that comedy comes mostly out of the dark side anyway."

Alan Thicke, Canadian Actor

"I started writing this feature comedy in New York - a Chris Farley vehicle. The script was decent. When I got to LA, I met some new friends in film school and had them read my script and give me notes."

David Steinberg, Canadian Comedian

Comedy, Film, Friends, School

"A straight factor is important in any comedy, because you need something to tee it up and also to ground it."

Jason Bateman, American Actor

"You're at the top of your game if you do comedy."

Hector Elizondo, American Actor

"I can cry at the drop of the pin. But comedy is hard for me; it's the timing."

Moira Kelly, American Actress

"I got involved in improv comedy. It settled me down when I was getting wild. I was sort of an evil teenager smashing up my cars and drinking and driving, let's just say, a lot."

Bruce McCulloch, Canadian Actor

Comedy, Drinking, Driving, Evil

"In tragedy every moment is eternity; in comedy, eternity is a moment."

Christopher Fry, English Playwright

Comedy, Eternity, Tragedy

"I had a terrible job letting me do anything that wasn't comedy."

Val Guest, British Director

"A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs."

Alexander Payne, American Director

"Dying is easy; comedy is hard."

Donald Wolfit, English Actor

"All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl."

Charlie Chaplin, English Actor

"Years have passed since I have set foot in a comedy club. If the comic is doing badly it's painful, and if the comic is doing brilliantly, it's extremely painful."

Dick Cavett, American Entertainer

"The person I have admired the most in comedy terms would be Eric Morecambe, who is my total hero."

Dawn French, British Comedian

"I'm trying my hand at writing. I'm writing a couple of projects for HBO, a half hour comedy and a miniseries."

Charles S. Dutton, American Actor

Comedy, Projects, Trying, Writing

"Because it's uncensored cable, I think we'll be able to do the kind of sketch comedy that really hasn't been seen before. We can actually finish jokes."

Aries Spears, American Actor

"The violence or the vaudeville style of comedy is a technique all by itself. You get up there, and you are a comedian, and you're doing one thing. That is, you're going to make the audience laugh."

Leslie Nielsen, Canadian Actor

Comedy, Style, Violence

"I left Indiana, and I ain't been back since. I've been doing comedy and paying my bills."

Mike Epps, American Comedian

"If you want good sketches, go pick up Sid Caesar. The best of Your Show of Shows. That's the greatest sketch comedy you'll ever see on television."

Jamie Farr, American Actor

Comedy, Television, Want

"I think it's because my comedy is in your face, and it comes from a place that's real."

Wanda Sykes, American Comedian

"There is no essential difference between the material of comedy and tragedy. All depends on the point of view of the dramatist, which, by clever emphasis, he tries to make the point of view of his audience."

George P. Baker, American Theorist

Comedy, Difference, Tragedy

"I want to do drama, light comedy, the whole range."

Bobby Darin, American Musician

Comedy, Drama, Light, Want

"But in terms of satire and comedy, our biggest and earliest influence was Mad magazine."

Jerry Zucker, American Director

Comedy, Influence, Satire

"Why do we laugh at such terrible things? Because comedy is often the sarcastic realization of inescapable tragedy."

Bryant H. McGill, American Poet

Comedy, Sarcastic, Tragedy

"I don't devalue comedy as compared to drama. Not one bit."

Ben Stiller, American Comedian

"I'm trying to make sure that there's comedy as well as sadness. It makes the sadness more memorable."

Rick Moody, American Novelist

Comedy, Sadness, Trying

"You can't get all of your news from Jon Stewart, especially since it's a comedy show."

Joe Klein, American Journalist

"Partly because the town is just finicky, there are strange Catch 22 clauses in the consciousness of this community and one of them was that you, I found out, you can't do a comedy unless you've just done a comedy."

Val Kilmer, American Actor

Comedy, Community, Consciousness

"There's nothing more difficult to do than comedy."

Robert Evans, American Director

Comedy, Nothing

"Improvisation is almost like the retarded cousin in the comedy world. We've been trying forever to get improvisation on TV. It's just like stand-up. It's best when it's just left alone. It doesn't translate always on TV. It's best live."

Amy Poehler, American Comedian

Comedy, Trying, World

"Comedy makes the subversion of the existing state of affairs possible."

Dario Fo, Italian Playwright

"I don't do comedy so much although I would like to do a comedy."

Aaron Eckhart, American Actor

"And the only studies were - Rodney Dangerfield was my mentor and he was my Yale drama school for comedy."

Robert Klein, American Comedian

Comedy, Drama, School

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