Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think, the first movie I saw that made me go, 'How did they do that?' was 'Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.'
Be it in the movies I make or on stage, I think it's a trap to keep doing the same thing over and over again.
Michael Moore got booed at the Oscars, so how liberal is Hollywood? Honestly, it's not liberal enough for me!
I like writing and directing. I enjoy telling stories, and I think it's born in a comedian to end up directing.
My heroes, growing up, were people like Andy Kaufman and Groucho Marx and people that very rarely drop the persona.
I actually believe that the basis of a good relationship isn't liking the same things, it's hating the same things.
I've probably done myself a disservice as a brand because the movies I've made. They've all been completely different.
I never was obsessed with comedians. When I was a little, little boy, I'd watch, like, George Carlin on 'Dinah Shore.'
The first time I was on Letterman, I was, like, 20 years old, and I was on a show called 'Camping with Barry White Night.'
Whenever people hear that Kurt Cobain was a fan of my standup, it's like hearing Jimi Hendrix loved Buddy Hackett or something.
I was in punk bands when I was a kid, and then I would do stand-up in between bands - which wasn't any different from my singing.
I like movies that don't fit in a category. Like, 'Get Out' - that was one of my favorite movies in a long time, and what is that?
I like stand-up. I've done it since I was a teenager, so it's kind of my first job and first kind of creative way to express myself.
I choose not to be in front of the camera. Sometimes I do get offered parts, but I really like just making movies and telling stories.
To make the films I want, I just have to live within my means and scale down my lifestyle - and be with somebody who's cool with that.
Occasionally I'll have a slip, and I might watch 'RuPaul's Drag Race' or something. But for the most part, I am out on the reality shows.
All I do is I have this insulated life with my wife and my daughter and a couple of friends who I try to see, but it doesn't even happen.
My approach to making movies is different than other people, because I just write a lot of screenplays. I'm constantly writing screenplays.
If Jimmy Kimmel didn't hire me, I wouldn't have the kind of career I have. And I don't know what kind of career I have, but he changed my life.
I'm not really trying to reach a big mass of an audience. My movies are done for a tiny, tiny budget, and that affords me to make them more personal.
If I ever got to do television, I would be interested in doing different kinds of characters and stories, and television doesn't lend itself to that.
I started doing comedy when I was a teenager with Tom Kenny, who is the voice of SpongeBob. I don't want to name drop, but, I've known him since I was 6.
Go on, try weasel, try squirrel; it tastes like chicken, it tastes just like chicken! If it tastes just like chicken, why don't you gimme some damn chicken?
I continue to do standup because there's a connection with a live audience - there are skills that you do learn as a standup comedian that help you on a set.
I started doing stand-up when I was 15 and doing Letterman when I was 20. So I've been doing stand-up comedy and clubs for over 30 years. That's a long time.
I'm always wondering, if Bigfoot's not real, then why does this creature show up in all these different cultures? I'm always fascinated by that kind of stuff.
At the same time most people were getting out of college, I was offered a buttload of cash to star in a movie. I don't think most students would have said no.
I retired from acting the same time they stopped hiring me. But following my own thing of making these small indie movies has been the happiest I've ever been.
Listen, you ignorant hillbillies, Lynyrd Skynyrd's dead. They're dead, they're dead, they're dead. The South's not risin' again. The slaves have been emancipated.
I'm fully aware of people's perception of me, so when I start taking myself too seriously, I have to remember that, to them, I'm just the guy from 'Police Academy.'
Being shocking and cruel is a commerce. It's an actual valued skill now. The thing that really annoys me, the perception of it is that it takes intelligence, and it doesn't.
People seem to think that I'm not aware of how people perceive me. But I'm the one that has to talk about 'Police Academy' all day long 27 years later. I'm totally aware of it.
I'm against gun control. It's not that I like guns, it's just that allowing Americans to have guns will increase the chances that a bunch of rednecks will blow each other's heads off.
Well, I'm an uncle now ... don't know if I'm a good one. My nephew asked me the difference between a hamster and a gerbil and I told him I thought there was more dark meat on a gerbil.
Stand-up was interesting to me at the beginning, because I was trying to parody it. My early stand-up was really Andy Kaufman-esque, and then I became the very thing I was making fun of.
The thing that interested me, there are so many filmmakers I admire - like David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino - they have these themes where there's not much going on, but they were suspenseful.
I'm making movies about people as flawed as myself and the viewers. So if you just have a reptilian brain and live your life simply by reacting to things, my movies aren't going to work for you.
The bar for being shocking doesn't even exist anymore. What am I going to do to shock people? Seriously, try to get The Fisting Musical off the ground? Its really at this point, there is no bar.
If I was a young man, I might have bypassed the whole comedian-actor thing and just been a filmmaker. Then I'd probably have spent my whole life going, 'I wonder if I could have been a comedian.'
In my first stand-up acts there wasn't material even. You know, I'd go on stage and cry and read a Dear John letter or gut fish on stage. I could be odd - and it's what interested me as a comedian.
I had a standup act, and I ended up turning it into something that was really watered down and accessible. Something that went from scary and threatening to something that was almost to the point of being corny.
I don't really pursue acting. I jokingly say that I retired right at the same time people stopped hiring me, but I really don't think I'm very good at it, and I'm not really interested in it anymore as an adult.
The environment on the sets of the movies I make, it's usually all friends and people that know each other, because no one's getting rich or making money, so it's always about, hopefully, that everyone's on the same page.
Fame is like a big eraser. It's strange, now that I'm famous. In my parents' opinion, all the shitty things - all the wreckage of my past - is erased. Now it's like I was never the kid who got arrested. Now I'm a wonderful son.
I was in this hamster wheel of being famous for being famous, much like a reality star. You would put me on a talkshow, I would say outrageous things. I was just perpetuating myself as a celebrity, and I found that really empty.
In fact, with Michael Jackson, I think those mourning people... They aren't even waking Michael, they're waking the Michael Jackson of '84. They never were given a chance to give their respects to the death of the guy they loved back in '84.
I do live a very Hugh Beaumont existence. I'm up every morning, taking my kids to school and all that, which obviously does interest me. But then it's taking meetings with goofballs and auditioning for crap, and then I spend a lot of time on the road.
I was in Ann Arbor, and I was told that this singer-songwriter guy wanted to meet me. It was Kurt Cobain. Nirvana had just made 'Bleach.' Kurt interviewed me on a college radio station. It was very strange. He was a fan of mine, and he gave me his album.
I had fame and wealth and things that are supposed to make you happy, but I wasn't happy, because there's no importance on having a fulfilling life. So in my mid-40s, that was my pursuit - making films that interested me, films that I would like to go see.
Every time I go to a march or a rally, and I post it on Instagram, people will go, 'I'm going to unfollow you!' And I'm like, 'I used to play arenas. I've lost a lot of fans. I'm fine with that. I've had people unfollowing me for years. You're way behind the times.'