Quotes from Jerry Lewis

Seeing a woman project the kind of aggression that you have to project as a comic just rubs me wrong.

When I was onstage doing the work, adrenaline killed the pain because I never hurt in front of an audience.

Interviews are vital, but you cannot allow an interviewer to take your life and disturb it.

You can't be faulted for being selfish if you're going to get better because of it.

Most people are embarrassed to admit there's another human being that's in control of them, that your heart beats three times as fast because you've given yourself to someone else.

Nothing can stop anyone who has a love and passion about their work.

I think the movie industry has to pay attention that we need to make good quality films, or we are never going to get the business back.

Most performers are used to the highs and the lows. If you can let a low stop you, that would be a sad commentary.

If I was performing, I had no pain. But you can't stay on stage 24 hours a day.

I say to everybody, love is what wakes you up in the morning, love is what makes you walk, and love is what makes you hope.

I learned from my dad that when you walk in front of an audience, they are the kings and queens, and you're but the jester.

There's something wonderful about taking a tag off a pair of socks, off a shirt, off a jacket. I really think that it has to do with my wanting to give myself all the perks that there are. It's part of my psychosis.

I turned down 'Some Like It Hot.' See how smart I am? I felt I couldn't bring anything funny to it. The outfit was funny. I don't need to compete with the wardrobe.

I'm shocked to be saying this, but as a child, I never went to a circus. It cost too much.

The people at Columbia Pictures have been great, but I had to tell them, 'Please don't be nice to me. Just pay me.'

You see, the people that have a point of view and have an opinion and have some intellect are dangerous in the film community - they're dangerous.

I don't like any female comedians.

People hate me because I am a multifaceted, talented, wealthy, internationally famous genius.

I've had the greatest respect for my work in this country by Americans. Critics have no brains.

I think it has helped that I am so curious about what has been happening to me and that I have enjoyed watching the changes through my life, you know? I didn't know what was going to happen to me next.

Don't you understand how dramatic it is to be a comic? To be a fool, to get people to laugh at this show-off? Milton Berle could take Laurence Olivier and stick him under the table if he wanted to. And so could I.

I was once six feet tall, but at 85, I'm now five feet four.

If I found the cure for dystrophy tomorrow, I would do a telethon in four weeks for acute pain that in this country is a bigger problem than cancer, heart, sickle cell, anemia, name it. It is - it's hitting 70 million Americans.

When you're doing a different kind of film, you have to bring a different kind of attitude; you have to bring a different kind of concentration.