I've done lots of improv things but not a whole movie.

All these things that enter your head are assignments. You write them up and then throw them out there and if someone wants to do it, your assignment is done.

I have a kind of objective luxury about my career.

What I learned, a little too late, was that the 'traditional' Martin Short target viewer weighs under 300 pounds. Unfortunately, I was on during daytime.

Sometimes people get passionate about the obscure jokes.

People do think I'm Jewish. But we're Irish Catholic. My father had a brogue.

I've chosen to treat my life more like a party than something to stress about.

What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.

I've never done an improvised movie as a fictitious character. I think that's the challenge.

My mother was the concert master of the symphony. Absurdity and eccentricity were not criticized.

Being the youngest of five, you're adored, you're fueled with confidence.

No one is any one thing.

One of my great influences was Don Knotts as Barney Fife.

You go through publicists because it's easy for a publicist to say to another publicist, "No".

I have sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears.

I've done lots of improv things but not a whole movie.

I think I'm funny because my family, my siblings were funny.

I hate to lull the audience into letting them think that something is something. It's always fun to defy expectations.

David Lynch and I almost made a movie together in the late '80s. We had lots of dinners and lunches. He's a very cool, hip guy. This film, let's face it, is like an homage to him, I would imagine he'd find it funny.

Someone once asked me what was the weirdest question I was ever asked. And I was stymied.

I think loss can fuel how you lead your whole life.

I pretend I'm one of the royal family when I'm in a hotel and that the hotel belongs to me - it is a palace.

All you're trying to do in an improvisation is get as much material as possible for the editing room.

I know if I were to drop dead now, people would probably write nice things in the obit.

You try to figure out things to keep yourself interested. It's very easy to get lulled.

You go through publicists because it's easy for a publicist to say to another publicist, 'No'.

I don't know if I should care for a man who made life easy; I should want someone who made it interesting.

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.

To discover the true principles of Morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods: They have need only of common sense.

I read a statistic that in horse racing, the favourite only wins 12 per cent of their races. I'm not comparing myself to a horse or saying I'm the favourite - although my sister would say I can nag an awful lot - but nothing is guaranteed in sport. Anyone can step up and take what you perceive to be your place in the final.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.

I found it an interesting portrait of a marriage in exploring notions of how one partner supports the other, whilst not jeopardizing the greater good - which is the family.

Ones suffering disappears when one lets go when one yields even to sadness.

I try to find hope in struggle and resistance in small places as much as I can.

I used to eat because food tastes so good. I love food, it's one of the best things on this planet. But I changed the way I was thinking. I started asking myself, 'Hey, am I eating because it tastes good? Or because I really need some more? Am I really still hungry?'

A lot of new girls are arriving every day - let them do the glamour roles! I am done with ultra glam outfits and five song routines - hereafter, I want to do meatier roles, now that I've acted with all the biggies.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

One of my primary objects is to form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work and give to every part its just proportion.

Free will though it makes evil possible is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.

Everything begins with accepting oneself. Without self-acceptance, one cannot accomplish anything.

I see it along our northern border - the importance of security must be balanced with humane enforcement policies that don't bully schoolchildren who are poised to contribute to our society.

To make a rock'n'roll record, technology is the least important thing.

Since I learned English, I've become a motormouth!

If Ralph Nader runs, President Bush is going to be re-elected, and if Ralph Nader doesn't run, President Bush is going to be re-elected. We're going to run on the president's strong and principled leadership and his positive agenda for a second term.

This is how it has been since time began: If you want to make something really worthwhile and true, then you have to suffer for it.

You must see it. You must believe it. And then you must never stop working to make it happen.

Buddha's teaching are very simple, you don't have to break your head to understand the message. The part that I like the most from Buddha's teachings and from His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, is that the most powerful weapon is to not attack, to be able to have self-control.

My father, Abe, was a small businessman. For 32 years, he ran an exterminating company. That may explain why our family always associated the smell of roach spray with love.