Mel Brooks
43 quotes
Biography
"Humor is just another defense against the universe."
"I've been accused of vulgarity. I say that's bullshit."
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."
"I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know."
"Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him."
"Look, I don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you're not alive."
"Lady, it rose below vulgarity."
"Who's the dummy writing this show?!"
"I was in the middle of shooting the last few weeks of Blazing Saddles somewhere in the Antelope Valley, and Gene Wilder and I were having a cup of coffee and he said, I have this idea that there could be another "Frankenstein." I said not another — we've had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law, we don't need another Frankenstein. His idea was very simple: What if the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein wanted nothing to do with the family whatsoever. He was ashamed of those wackos. I said, "That's funny.""
"Comedy is a weird but very beautiful thing. Even though it seems foolish and silly and crazy, comedy has the most to say about the human condition. Because if you can laugh, you can get by. You can survive when things are bad when you have a sense of humor."
"As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes."
"If they [presidents] can't do it to their wives, they do it to their country."
"To me, tragedy is if I'll cut my finger, that's tragedy...Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die."
"[explaining that Paul Revere was Anti-Semitic] He was scared they were moving into the neighborhood. "They're coming, they're coming. The Yiddish, they're coming""
"After I eat asparagus..."
"You know Cuneiform? You know Sanskrit? It's neither of those."
"Angel of Death ain't kissing me! I'm full of garlic!"
"It's Wheird, there's an H in there. Gotta hit that H otherwise they think I'm some sort of a kook!"
"[on the greatest invention] Liquid Prell."
"No! You don't wear a hat on your gentles! You wear a hat on your head where you're supposed to wear a hat!"
"[On Churchill's Accent] "Ve must conquer da Narjies!" Now, we were fighting and killing Nazis. We all left and went looking for Narjies!"
"Excuse me, is this England?"
"He understands not only with his brain but with his heart. And that might be called love. Not quite sure, but maybe that's the key."
"Mel Brooks has all the consistency of Spike Milligan, the subtle self-censorship of Benny Hill, and the human warmth of Bob Monkhouse. It's a good job he has the brassneck and occasional brainstorms of Mel Brooks or he would be a monster."
"Mel is sensual with me. He treats me like an uncle — a dirty uncle. He's an earthy man and very moral underneath. He has traditional values."