Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
When I was young kid, I used to watch Jack Benny, and I thought the minimal aspect of what he did was revelatory. I loved Jack Benny.
The honor of being able to play Maura is transformative. I'm 70 years old. I should be in a reading room, reading Dickens or something.
I am the Internet guy. But the reason the 'Onion News Empire' was such an easy decision to make is I so trust that side of the fence now.
I wanted to do well for me and for Maura. It is bigger than me. I have a responsibility. It's incumbent upon me to do Maura the best I can.
When I was growing up, there was a character on TV; there was a character stereotype: it was personified by Mel on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.'
I think shows being sent out this way - pressing a button and 10 episodes can go out to the U.S.A., and the U.K. and Germany, it's very cool.
I think most of my heroes are not the traditional types. A guy I was fascinated with was Buster Keaton. I just love what he did. I love that mug.
Guillermo del Toro. He's in his pure artist's stroke. He's just hitting it out of the park. I would go anywhere to work with him. He's a real artist.
Probably because I'm bald. Don't the bald people always play doctors and principals? Yeah, isn't that funny? And lawyers. A lot of lawyers and judges.
I had a bilateral lisp, and I was overweight. I was the kid who played with the flowers on the ground in the outfield during baseball. I was that kid.
George Saunders's 'Lincoln in the Bardo' is a hands-down masterpiece - the subject of Abraham Lincoln and the genius of this author is a perfect union.
Certainly the principal has to be bald. Certainly the school counselor has to be bald. And the driver's ed teacher. And maybe the wood-shop teacher. Mine was.
The day before I work, I don't like to even look at the script and let whatever happens happen on the set. But I do prepare a lot. I'm a big believer in that.
This whole thing about winning and losing is muddy waters. But I can remember, as a young actor, just walking around this city and not being able to get arrested.
I never want to have that on my shoulders - I never want to be number one on the call sheet. That's a life that I don't want. I mean, I'm not ducking the responsibility.
I do remember going shopping with my mother; I think the name of the store was Ruth Atkins. I don't know why I can remember that. It's probably because it's not the name.
We all know about secrets - to have that pressure of something you can't reveal. That's universal: 'Am I safe? Am I gonna be OK? Will my family still love and respect me?'
Am I a star? That's a different thing. I mean no, I'm not in People magazine. But I must be doing something right, because I've done it for 50 years! And I like doing what I do.
I loved the gentlemanly way they treated each other. It was unlike anything I was used to. I started helping them strike the set and, at 11, began taking acting classes privately.
I think your resources are feeling. Your resources are depth. Your resources are learning. Your resources are touching and feeling. And for me, sobriety helps and aids all of that.
You see kids walking to the bus, and they're watching product on their phones. I'm positive that my grandkids and their grandkids are going to put on a pair of glasses and watch something.
In Yiddish, we say, 'Nisht ahin un nisht aher.' It's neither here, it's neither there. I get more nerves than on anything I do when I'm doing multi-camera. But single-camera, I love very much.
Mel Brooks and David Zucker - there are very few people who know silly, and they're usually hugely intelligent, because you have to be intelligent to get it. Like the Marx brothers. I love it.
I almost should have a shirt made: 'Jill Soloway has changed my life...' Not only changed my life with the opportunity to play Maura, but the opportunity and the responsibility of playing Maura.
To you people out there, you producers and you network owners and you agents and you creative sparks, please give transgender talent a chance. Give them auditions. Give them their story. Do that.
I'd always had a crush on Teri Garr - and still do. I've always adored her. I mean, who doesn't think about Teri in Young Frankenstein? I mean, come on! It makes you talk in that accent for weeks.
I had a theater that was right across the street from me, and I would just go there after school and just hang out and watch... and everything seemed calmer there and nicer there and warmer there.
'Attaboys' help people. I am huge on attaboy. Confidence is the great ingredient to living and art, with fidelity to self. It's so important to surround yourself with people who give you confidence.
We did a thing that we would call we call 'hirstories.' H - I - R - S - T - O - R - Y. I would enact a young Mort. And that always felt - it was so funny - it felt more difficult than playing Maura.
My education was doing good plays and also stinkers. When you do a stinker, you learn how to act. I like having to audition. It's nice to do rehearsals. But it's with an audience that you get to love it!
The Tambors were conservative Jews, and we attended Temple Beth Shalom at 14th Avenue and Clement Street in San Francisco. We were the only Jewish family for miles. To me, being Jewish meant 'otherness.'
What can I say about a world without Garry Shandling? This is where I need Garry. He would have something pithy, and there would be a laugh, and your heart would break at the same time. He changed my life.
I get up and cook for my kids, who really like my scrambled eggs. Or we make pancakes and the requisite bacon. The kids either play or watch cartoons, and Daddy gets to read the 'New York Times' and do his puzzle.
I thought Pan's Labyrinth was one of the greatest films I've ever seen, just pure artistry. Guillermo Del Toro is just really something, this guy. And he's a real mensch: down-to-earth, funny, huggy, and terrific.
I've been in three sort of... I mean, I'd say they're groundbreaking series, if only because of the creators. One was 'Max Headroom', another was 'The Larry Sanders Show', and the third was 'Arrested Development'.
I remember I was standing next to Timothy Dalton in Brenda Starr, and he turned to me and said,"Oh, I think I've just been tagged to play James Bond." I'll never forget that. I went, "Oh! Okay. Well, good for you."
You keep your head down and you work and work, and all of a sudden you pick your head up and people are receiving it the same way we're sending it. They're thinking the same things that I'm thinking about the show.
There are times between five and seven when this house is like a bowling alley, but it's reinspired me. My acting has gotten better because of these kids. I feel the same spirit I did when I was doing Off-Broadway.
What's interesting about playing Maura is that I get to use more of Jeffrey that I've ever used in any role, and I think that's the remarkable part about it and truly the most surprising part about doing this role.
I give a speech at some colleges and corporations called 'Performing Your Life: An Evening with Jeffrey Tambor.' I get asked a lot of questions, and people say, 'Your stories are wonderful. You should write a book.'
I think when I was a younger actor, I did carry that stuff home. When I did ...And Justice For All, I was afraid to drop the character. But when you get older, you learn to go, "Okay, that's it. Let's go have dinner."
I can't say enough about the guts and the talents of Amazon. They're so agile, they're so nimble; they picked us up two weeks after we premiered, and their whole attitude is, 'Go, go, go, go,' so I'm very, very impressed.
I was a young actor who was bald, but at that time, there was a thing on television that - there was a prototype or a stereotype of a principal who was bald and mean with glasses, or there was... the angry boss who was bald.
Garry Shandling in particular - really had the concept. He really knew it, and it was done so lovingly. He would go beyond the joke, and sort of go into the character. His "funny" was very different, and I really appreciated it.
That's an actor's life. I thought Meet Joe Black was gonna be one of the big changes for me, and it was gonna be a runaway hit - and it wasn't. And with Mr. Mom, I said, "There's just no way." And it turned out to be a huge hit.
I am not so concerned with how many Rotten Tomatoes we have - although the good reviews are to be wished for, of course - but I have my hands full in the daily housekeeping of doing Maura right and being truthful to this experience.
The first time I met Garry Shandling was my audition for 'The Larry Sanders Show,' with Garry and his casting director Francine Maisler. I can recall every minute of it. He was gracious and kind, and he read with me. He was terrific.
Saturday The 14th movie is a cult classic. And you know another one like that that I did, is Three O'Clock High. People come up to me about those two all the time. Film schools even study Three O'Clock High. Shot for shot, it's a textbook.
People are identifying not only with the trans movement, but also the Pfefferman family. What I am noticing is people are coming up on the street and talking about their life and their family, and they say, 'Your family is just like mine.'
My part had three lines. I said, You look wonderful, sir, three times. All my friends said, Do not take that role - and do not understudy. You'll regret it the rest of your life. I did both of those things, and I've never regretted it once.