Quotes from Jerry Lewis

I'm really, basically, nine, and I've always been that. I've never, ever allowed the child within me to die.

When you are debilitated, and you're very depressed, and you believe there's no hope, you cannot get a better potpourri of down.

This is the pain pacemaker. I've got a battery under my skin. From that battery are two electrodes that go into the spine where they cut bone away to accommodate it. Now I put on the power here. If I have the pain, the stimulator starts. It's tingling, like when your foot falls asleep, you know?

Going unnoticed has never been my strong suit.

I'm an unusual man. I know that.

Red is uplifting.

I've raised my boys the old-fashioned way, with spankings, sending them upstairs if they misbehave at parties, the works. I believe discipline is the proof of love.

Postwar America was a very buttoned-up nation. Radio shows were run by censors, Presidents wore hats, ladies wore girdles. We came straight out of the blue - nobody was expecting anything like Martin and Lewis. A sexy guy and a monkey is how some people saw us.

I believe when you go out there, you have a responsibility to deliver. I have old-fashioned thinking when I'm out there.

An only child, I always wanted a large hug-house.

I never got a formal education. So my intellect is my common sense. I don't have anything else going for me. And my common sense opens the door to instinct.

I would not want to do one-episode television - that's just a brief encounter with your audience. The arc takes the actor into an arena where he can really stretch.

The beauty of love, as far as I'm concerned, is it makes you better. It makes you stronger. It gives you direction. It gives you understanding of what life is and what we've been given.

I happen to believe in the human condition so strongly that I don't have to make up games to play with people. Here's what I think: If it's good, let's go for it. If it needs work to be better, let's work on it.

When I arrived in Las Vegas, I felt I was embraced by it.

I will do whatever is necessary to make better the stupidity on my part - and therefore go after those who are acting stupid themselves. It's not popular. You don't make friends when you do that. And I couldn't care less.

My family was as absolute as the work.Family was first always.

Adrenaline is so strong that none of us understand it.

I almost get annoyed at the fact that I'm not going to use all that I got.

I need the applause.

There's nothing more dramatic than the comedy I've done. Because the comedy I've done is to get to the audience, get them to feel it, or they won't laugh.

I started as a writer. I had the dumb act, but I made my living from writing.

My ego and my vanities have nothing to do with comedy.

I never tell an audience what they can expect. I never have and I never will. I'm an entertainer for 75 years.