The Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower. They're monumental. They're straight out of Page 52 in your school history book.
Only once in a thousand years or so do we get to hear a Mozart or see a Picasso or read a Shakespeare. Ali was one of them, and yet at his heart, he was still a kid from Louisville who ran with the gods and walked with the crippled and smiled at the foolishness of it all.
It's like being a gym rat, but you're a theater rat, and then that becomes your fraternity house. That becomes your extended family.
I really could've been a good student, but I was always hearing an imaginary audience.
In my standup work, I always do these characters, older people who are just off to the side. It's easier to write a story about the guy who made it to the top, but the middle is so much more interesting, so much more murky.
Your success is in your point of view. It's your life that you're talking about; it's your observations. That's the best lesson that I ever had.
My mind is always going. I'm always thinking what I need to do, what I haven't done, what I did do, what I didn't do as well as I could - I'm relentless that way with myself.
No disrespect to Sweden: I didn't think of them as the comedy universe.
I'm proud that I have done so many different kinds of things and maintained an amazing family. And I think that's the joy: that I've been able to have everything.
When I first started, there were, like... two or three critics that you thought, 'Alright, I hope I get a good review from them.' And now there's millions of them.
I've said, I never thought I rebelled. I never - I don't think I've ever had that period. You know, I just had to do what I had to do. You know, I was a good kid.
From the first time I saw Sid Caesar be funny I knew that's what I had to do.
Two things I really wanted to be: a stand-up comic or a New York Yankee - or a really funny New York Yankee.
That's still the greatest high, that feeling of being in control of 2,000 people. It's me and them, and I like the odds. It's not even so much the funny. It's getting them quiet. In the quiet moments in '700 Sundays,' I just really love that they're getting moved.
I was raised mostly by my mom.
The Academy and the Oscars have been very gracious to me.
Rehearsals are for gags.
When you're the host of the Academy Awards, and you grew up watching Bob Hope and Johnny Carson, and now it's your turn, and you get a chance to run with the baton on the relay for a while, I really embraced it and just really loved being there.
Well, the way things are going, aside from wheat and auto parts, America's biggest export is now the Oscar.
Believe me, happiness is not ticking off Walter Cronkite.
I started writing in 1948 - basically.
I have to admit, I was a little bit of a misfit.
It is great seeing the fruits of your labor. The joy I have in watching my daughters with their kids is great, because they're doing a wonderful job, and the kids are fantastic.
I'd like to think there is a Heaven, and it starts from the happiest day in your life.
There are all these things I want to accomplish. We never know how long we're going to get.
All that time, you go, 'God, am I slipping away here?' And then something great happens, you get a call, and work begets more work.
The death of Sid Caesar on Wednesday caused a chain reaction in my soon-to-be-66-year-old mind. I was saddened, of course, but felt a sense of relief that he was at last free from the indignity of aging.
I think I've far exceeded what I ever thought I could possibly do.
As a comedian, you have everything working against you.
I don't like to watch my work after I do it because it just - I'll always look at the wrong things.
You don't want to wait for that aged jockey role.
To me, little Mike Wazowski is one of the best characters I ever got to play because he was funny. He was outrageous. He got angry. He was romantic. He was a full, well-rounded character.
I didn't rebel as a child. I missed that angry teenager thing.
I was a film-directing major at NYU. I'm still not sure why I became a directing major, when I was really an actor and a comedian, but there was something that drew me to doing that.
I'm comfortable being old... being black... being Jewish.
I'm a baby. I sleep like a baby - I'm up every two hours. And I think a lot. I worry a lot. I have great nights of no sleep where ideas come.
You have to really respect what your kids are doing with their kids and how they're raising them. You can't push your way into areas where you shouldn't be saying anything. You have to always remember they're not your own kids. Play with them, love them, spoil them to death - then hand them back.
I'm going to go on just living and laughing and loving.
Kids need a happy household. They need to be loved and supported in their dreams. And I don't think you can make your kids' dreams your own. They need you to support them in their dreams.
I have performed my one-man show '700 Sundays' over 400 times now. There were only two times that I can honestly say I was nervous. The first was when I knew Mel Brooks was in the audience, and the second was when Sid Caesar came.
Gentlemen, start your egos.
My dad had two, sometimes three jobs. Besides running the Commodore Music Shop in Manhattan, he did jazz concerts, and he ran this great jazz label, Commodore.
I watch old 'Truth or Consequences' on Hulu. 'Concentration.' And 'The Match Game' with Gene Rayburn.
A laugh is a weird sound, and when you get a couple thousand people making it at once, it's really strange. But when I can feel proud of myself for causing it, it's great.
I think it's like a relay race. You run, and you hand over the baton, and your kids pick it up. They take the stuff they want, throw the rest away, and keep running. That's what life is about.
I've never looked at - with the exception of little snippets - very much of anything I've done in the last 15, 20 years.
My Aunt Sheila was terrifying! She would put a napkin in her mouth and say, 'You've got something on your face, dear. Let me just scratch that off your face. Let me sand your cheek.'
I was always looking for something else to do most of the time, until I got into the acting program. Then, I really found myself.
That's the thing about jazz: it's free flowing, it comes from your soul.
