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Harry Shearer Biography

Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, musician, radio host, director and producer. He is known for his long-running roles on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of The Credibility Gap, a radio comedy group. Following the breakup of the group, Shearer co-wrote the film Real Life with Albert Brooks and started writing for Martin Mull's television series Fernwood 2 Night.

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Harry Shearer Quotes

The act of getting married, stripped of the necessity to have a secure setting to raise children, seems to me no less grim than registering your emotions with the government.

Children, Emotion, Government, Grim, Registering, Setting

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?

Absolute, Doe, Make, Political, Power, Pure

Sometimes, songs spill out of you very fast, and sometimes you have to wrangle them to the floor. But the same thing is true of comedy, where sometimes it really flows.

Comedy, Flow, Same, Song, Thing

If you're going to do something that lasts 90 minutes, you can't really do it with stick figures.

Figures, Lasts, Stick, Sticks

As a kid, I really did want to hang out with the grownups, so it was hanging out with the hippest grownups in the world. This was the nicest bunch of people I've worked with in show business, with the exception of the people around A Mighty Wind. It really was a wonderful eight years.

Kids, Eight, Years, People, Wonderful, Business

Music often happens even faster than comedy in terms of the creation.

Comedy, Creation, Faster

For a guy who is always banging on about the masculine virtues, Nixon had this remarkable proclivity for very dainty gestures.

Guy, Gestures, Virtue, Banging, Dainty

Nixon's genius was that he was able to portray himself as the toughest of the anti-communists, and yet run on a platform that he had a plan to end the Vietnam War. And, of course, his plan was to prolong it until his second election - but he didn't tell us that then.

Genius, Platform, Portray, Running, Toughest, War

The hardest work most of us do is maintaining the appearance of normality.

Appearance, Hardest, Maintaining, Work

If Nixon were a Republican senator today, he would have been primaried out.

Today, Republican, Senators, Senator

The Simpsons will end as soon as Fox is able to find an 8 p. m. comedy hit to replace it - so I give us another 50 years.

Able, Comedy, Fox, Giving, Hit, Years

Here's a guy [Richard Nixon] who had no gift for small talk, never liked to be around strangers, was physically awkward, and he goes into the one business that calls for ease with strangers and a gift for small talk.

Awkward, Ease, Guy, Liked, Richard

In the year and a half I was on SNL, I never saw anybody ad lib anything. For a very good reason - the director cut according to the script. So, if you ad libbed, you'd be off mike and off camera.

Cameras, Cut, Cutting, Director, Year, Years

I would come back to public school for usually about half the year. It was actually better for me to be out of school a lot, because I was two years younger than everybody, which is a bad situation, socially.

Bad, School, Two, Years

When Nixon died, on my radio show I started doing sketches with three basic conceits: One, there's a place called Heaven. Two, Nixon got in. And three, he's still taping.

Heaven, Nixon, Taping, Three, Two

I think in most cases, if you're with good people, comedy creation happens faster in collaboration. That's how I can tell if it's a good collaboration: If it's faster than me by myself, then it works. If it's slower than me by myself, then I get out of the room.

Collaboration, Comedy, People, Slower, Think, Thinking

The first thing you've got to do is know your craft, and then you can do something else with it.

Can Do Something, Craft, Crafts, Firsts, Know, Thing

I couldn't help but be struck that this guy I had thought was the embodiment of everything wrong with American politics, a lot of his domestic policy was mind-numbingly, head-spinningly to the left of Obama's. It was under Nixon that the EPA was created. It was under Nixon that OSHA was created. Under Nixon that the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts were passed.

Air, Created, Embodiment, Guy, Help, Water

I am one of those people who thrive on deadlines. Nothing brings on inspiration more readily than desperation.

Desperation, Inspiration, Nothing, People, Readily

[The word class has] been excised from the acceptable political vocabulary, except in the limited usage of right-wingers when they accuse liberals of inciting 'class warfare' - a charge that means it's okay for rich people to vote their economic interests but it's not all right to encourage poor people to do so.

Acceptable, Charge, Class, Mean, Okay, Vocabulary

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