Bob Newhart Quotes
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I really don't know what makes a comedian. I think it's a family background and environment. Yet if you put the same ingredients in another person, he may never utter a funny line.
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I don't want to sound like the old guy, but cynicism is a potential danger. It colors our way of looking at the world.
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Stand-up is different from television. In stand-up, you've got to be in control.
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I wasn't the class clown. I wasn't that obvious. There would be a circle of guys, and they're watching the class clown. And I'm standing in the back, and I turn to the guy next to me and I say something funny to him, and he starts to laugh. And the guy next to him says, 'What did he say?'
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I didn't know I was cool, but I was very flattered that some of the younger comedy writers came up to talk to me at the Emmys. I found that gratifying.
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It's getting harder and harder to differentiate between schizophrenics and people talking on a cell phone. It still brings me up short to walk by somebody who appears to be talking to themselves.
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I was an accountant in Chicago, and a friend of mine, Ed Gallagher, was in advertising. At 4:30 every day I'd be bored, and I would call him. He'd interview me.
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You do a clean show and it's over and the audience have enjoyed themselves and you've enjoyed yourself, and you haven't had to resort to shock.
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I am one of the great wasters of time. I have made it an art form. I can get up at 8 o'clock in the morning, be out of the house by 8:30 and back by 5 P.M., and I'll be going all day long and accomplish absolutely nothing. It's an amazing talent.
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All comedians are, in a way, anarchists. Our job is to make fun of the existing world.
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It was a decision to work clean. I just prefer to work that way. I have no problem with comedians who don't work that way. There was a temptation in the early '70s to reconsider. I decided against it.
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Comedians are never really on vacation because you're always at attention... that antenna is always out there.
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I would say I came from upper middle class family.
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Richard Pryor introduced me to the world of the inner city, and the urban world, and did it hysterically. My favorite comedian, even though we work 180 degrees differently, but funny is funny is funny.
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I'm most proud of the longevity of my marriage, my kids, and my grandchildren. If you don't have that, you really don't have very much.
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Don't live in the past. There's no point. You can't change anything. What a waste of time.
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Without great writing, you've got a bunch of actors bumping into each other.
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I'm very open to the up-and-comers.
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The acting is better when you know your material is being judged.
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If 'The New York Times' says it, it must be true.
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I don't think of myself as an American Master. I've just been making a living.
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I don't have a stack of scripts.
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Chuck Lorre and I had been talking about doing one of his shows for a while. I said I'd like to do 'The Big Bang Theory,' because I think it's the best written, most intelligent show on television.
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There isn't a comedian in the world that hasn't bombed.