Quotes from Carl Reiner

People ask me where I get my vitality, and to tell you the truth, I don't have a clue.

I know Samantha Bee, and I know she's not a racist or anything.

Going through war and living is a very important process. You realize how vulnerable you are and how lucky you are to be in the right place at the right time. As a matter of fact, I have a history of luck.

'New Girl' is funny. I love Zooey Deschanel. She's the most charming thing around.

Improvisation is just writing in front of an audience.

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow. ~Swedish Proverb Lust is easy. Love is hard. Like is most important.

'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' was my favorite of all the things I ever did, because it was like doing a Sunday crossword puzzle and beating it.

There's nothing more satisfying than having an idea and seeing it through to find out that, not only did you like it, but the audience and critics all seemed to agree.

It's like a bird. If he knew what he was doing, he would fall.

I've seen the invention of television and performed on television even before my family owned one.

I think that comedy really tells you how it is. The other thing about comedy is that - you don't even know if you're failing in drama, but you do know when you're failing in comedy. When you go to a comedy and you don't hear anybody laughing, you know that you've failed.

You'd only write what you know and what you know is what you do and the people you know. So you'd write about them or the people you have met casually. It's part of your life.

I need to see a woman president in my lifetime. Or the first Jewish president.

I've lived through the Great Depression.

I'm a charming coward; I fight with words.

I served in World War II in our fight to defeat fascism.

You can get the best out of people if they're happy and not worried or not frightened that they're going to make a mistake.

Every morning, I would actually look at the obituaries before I had breakfast. And as a joke I said if I was not in it, I would have the breakfast.

I figure I'm just one of many people. I'm not that different from anybody else, and I don't have great language, highfalutin' language - I'm very ordinary. So I figure if I write about myself, other people with similar feelings and experiences would go, 'Oh, that's me.'

Comedians are really writers who don't have pens and pencils about them, but they riff.

If you write, write about what you do and who you are, and you can't be wrong. Don't lie about anything. You are very similar to everybody else in the world. You love, you hate, you have friends, you have enemies. Be who you are.

'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was my labor of love. When asked the best thing I ever did - that was it. I wrote it originally for myself.

I wrote three books about growing up in the Bronx.

Even failures can turn into something positive if you just keep going. I wrote a television pilot called 'Head of the Family.' CBS didn't want it. It was considered a failure. But we reworked it. A year later, it became 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.'