Quotes from Martin Short

Sometimes people get passionate about the obscure jokes.

You can do 12 great takes, but if the director is no good, he'll end up picking the wrong one.

My mother was the concert master of the symphony. Absurdity and eccentricity were not criticized.

One of my great influences was Don Knotts as Barney Fife.

Eugene Levy is my closest friend.

What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.

Anytime there's originality and comedy combined, it's very potent for people who love comedy.

I'm just drawn to the odd guy, the man who is full of it, the guy who has limited talent but is pretending he's a genius.

What I learned, a little too late, was that the 'traditional' Martin Short target viewer weighs under 300 pounds. Unfortunately, I was on during daytime.

Comedy is a weird thing.

Someone once asked me what was the weirdest question I was ever asked. And I was stymied.

I pretend I'm one of the royal family when I'm in a hotel and that the hotel belongs to me - it is a palace.

I hate to lull the audience into letting them think that something is something. It's always fun to defy expectations.

There's a lot of insecure, sad people in any profession.

Some people you work on a film with, and then they disappear.

I have sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears.

I think loss can fuel how you lead your whole life.

My job is not to analyze my career. But I am proud of the amount of work I've done and the amount of commitment I've given to it. That makes me proud.

I've never done an improvised movie as a fictitious character. I think that's the challenge.

I've chosen to treat my life more like a party than something to stress about.

You go through publicists because it's easy for a publicist to say to another publicist, 'No'.

Why does 'I Love Lucy' still make people laugh? Because she's a specific character who has real reactions.

All these things that enter your head are assignments. You write them up and then throw them out there and if someone wants to do it, your assignment is done.

Trump is Trump. Some people find him hilarious. I don't find it hilarious, but you can't say it's dull. There's nothing credible about Donald Trump.