Quotes from Mort Sahl

I used to go to two movies every week for the Saturday matinee when I was a kid.

Too much comedy today is vulgar, not clever. I say that as a comedian and as a consumer.

Washington couldn't tell a lie, Nixon couldn't tell the truth, and Reagan couldn't tell the difference.

I was a writer. I couldn't sell anything, and the comedians were among the dumbest people I had ever met. They'd all say to me, 'The average man won't understand it.' You know, they're superior to the average man.

Professional comedians, surprisingly, have a lack of humor. They're insensitive to the insanity of our times.

We claim we believe in compassion, which is an abstract, and when it's personified we discredit the man

My life needs editing.

Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen.

A political satirist's job is to draw blood. I'm not so much interested in politics as I am in overthrowing the government.

I don't believe in good people and bad people. I believe in the better parts of people.

If you were the only person left on the planet, I would have to attack you. That's my job.

The fact is that you can't have a good relationship with a girl who hasn't settled things with her father.

There are talented people along the way, although very few come to mind. They're not very daring. Part of the problem is that comedians don't want to overthrow anything. They want to join it.

The distance between taking social action and having the knowledge is as wide as the mouth of the Mississippi.

I was afraid no one would laugh, and I wanted to pretend I wasn't noticing the audience. I didn't want the audience to get the idea I was telling a joke and waiting for a laugh.

I didn't think that anything is beyond humor - not profane humor, but a good, honest approach to humor.

People tell me there are a lot of guys like me, which doesn't explain why I'm lonely.

There's a great feeling of powerlessness in America. When I express ideas to people, they say, 'That's terrific, but do you think it really counts?'

My whole life is a movie. It's just that there are no dissolves. I have to live every agonizing moment of it. My life needs editing.

I'm a radical, and I always have been.

Women have everything they want, and they've never been so unhappy.

Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. If he ran unopposed he would have lost.

Every time the Russians throw an American in jail, the Committee throws an American in jail to get even.

Comedians have to challenge the power. Comedians should be dangerous and devastating - and funny. That's the hardest part.