Bob Newhart Quotes
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I always hated when the studios just kind of said that anybody can act. You look at people like Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda - and I'm just talking about the male actors - there aren't a lot who can act. It's a very special talent, and I wish it were recognized as a very special talent.
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I certainly don't delude myself that there aren't certainly more important things to do in life than make people laugh, but I can't imagine anything that would bring me more joy.
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A lot of money is spent trying to keep people alive who don't necessarily want to be alive.
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Well I was much too practical to presume to have a career in comedy.
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When I first started out, 'Time' magazine did an article on what it called 'the sick comics,' and they were myself, Shelley Berman, Nichols & May, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, and Mort Sahl. We were considered 'sick.'
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All I can say about life is, 'Oh God, enjoy it!'
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Comedians are innately programmed to pick up oddities like mispronounced words, upside-down books on a shelf, and generally undetectable mistakes in everyday life.
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I remember seeing a movie with Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney where they were husband and wife, and they got in bed, and he had on polka-dot pajamas and she had on striped pajamas, and when they got up the next morning he had on the striped pajamas and she had the polka dot pajamas, and that was considered racy at that time!
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Don Rickles and I are best friends. I know that might seem strange to those who know Don only by reputation, but somebody has to be his friend. Just to make sure I don't forget, Don gave me a doormat that sits just outside the front door of my house. It reads: 'The Newharts: The Rickleses Best Friends.'
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I found the most difficult thing when you became successful - when I had the record album, it won Album of the Year - that you were cut off from the source of your material. Your material was everyday people, and you were kind of cut off from that, and you had to work at it.
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Humor is so important to the American scene throughout history.
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There are some actresses that can't do comedy; it's too heavy-handed.
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I don't know how to do a show not in front of a live audience.
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No matter what hyenas sound like, they are not actually laughing.
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I can't do a one-camera show. I don't know how to do that kind of show where you count in your head and then you do the next line.
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The first time I heard Richard Pryor, I knew he would be a major force in the world of comedy.
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I don't have a stack of scripts that, when I get home, studios are clamoring, saying, 'Has Bob read ours yet?'
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Dick Martin, if you put a gun to his forehead, he couldn't tell you a joke.
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One time I happened to use the word 'denigrate' onstage, and it didn't get any reaction. So as I continued my act, the left side of my brain was fast-forwarding to see if I had any other big words coming up.
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I love portraying the totally indifferent person.
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I know Chuck Lorre personally, and am familiar with his work going back to 'Roseanne' and 'Cybil.'
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The greatest comedian I've ever seen is Jack Benny. He wasn't afraid of the silences.
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The highest of highs is to have a new routine that you're just breaking in and that's working, and that's - you're one step removed doing a situation comedy because you have a live audience there.
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I made a record album in 1960 and it exploded, and I got all these offers for TV.