Only God can look at somebody's heart.
I'm nuts and I know it. But so long as I make 'em laugh, they ain't going to lock me up.
I don't hate my enemies. After all, I made 'em.
A fellow told me he was going to hang-glider school. He said, 'I've been going for three months. ' I said, 'How many successful jumps do you need to make before you graduate?' He said, 'All of them. '
I just want to be known as a clown, because to me that's the height of my profession. It means you can do everything—sing, dance and above all, make people laugh.
You know, last night it was so cold that my pillow and my sheets fought to see who got under the blankets first.
If I can make people smile, then I have served my purpose for God.
Empathy is not merely the basic principle of artistic creation. It is also the only path by which one can reach the truth about life and society.
Land of snap decisions, land of short attention spans, nothing is savored long enough to really understand.
Well, I wanted to be a philosopher, which is the idlest occupation in the world. I wanted to be involved in abstract thought, but because of various problems with the authorities I wasn't able to pull that one off. A lifetime of idleness in academia would have really suited me. So I was thrown out, as it were. Other than that, there seemed no possible idle occupations, so writing. . . although writing isn't exactly idleness. There's an enormous tension between indolence and languor.
If something smells bad, why put your nose in it?