Quotes from Norman Lloyd

Truly great performers reveal not only their characters but bring everything they know about the world with them. It's not just what's in the script but the story of everything you've done and of who you are. If you're Chaplin, you're the immigrant. No matter what he's doing, he's always the little guy trying to make his place in the world.

I was in my second year at NYU. I knew what I wanted to do, and I just walked out of college. So, from the age of 17, I've been able to do what I wanted, and that makes for a kind of contentment, a fairly pleasant demeanor.

I have never had a better working experience than 'St. Elsewhere.' It's a supreme show.

I always felt it was necessary to keep up some kind of communication with other people.

I very much admired Lancaster. George Clooney reminds me of him today. Not all the macho, swinging around that Burt used to do, but the courage. You know where you stand with men like that.

If you're in the groove, you get something back from the audience that is so exciting and rewarding that no film or television work can possibly compete.

You know I've never worked without a script before, but with Apatow, it's all improvisation. He calls out a premise, and you have to adapt.

We in New York were very poor in the depths of the Depression - but I must say, that was the best time of my life.

People get ideas of how to live or not to live from what you do on television.

I eat meat, poultry and fish in proper proportion - nothing to excess.

The Depression was remarkable because you had nothing, and the salaries, when you got a job, were very small. But you could do anything. You see, a donut was ten cents. A cup of coffee was a nickel. That was lunch, with an apple. And I would be playing a lead on a Broadway show on that kind of diet.

I was playing good tennis up until 100.

I'm very fond of Amy Schumer. I think she's terrific, an enormous talent.

I'm a pure spirit, ha ha ha!

There were little Charlie Chaplins that you would wind up, and they would walk. I remember vividly. I was sitting in the high chair with the little tray in front of me. My parents would wind it up, and it would walk to me.

I don't eat shellfish. I drink wine moderately and have one whiskey every evening before dinner.

I imagine I was supposed to become a lawyer or something. But this was the Depression; the lawyers I saw were all driving cabs. So I thought, 'Well, if I'm going to be badly off anyway, I might as well be badly off in the theater, where you get used to it.'

I loved 'Modern Family!' It was sort of the precursor to 'Trainwreck,' to that character. But I loved it. I had a great time doing it.

I used to watch Babe Ruth for 50 cents. Now, baseball tickets are $400!

I'm very proud of the people with whom I've worked. It's an amazing collection that just by happenstance happened.

I watch the Dodgers every night - no reading anymore - and I dream that I could have hit that home run.

Peter Weir is remarkable. He can do anything.

I was clearly brought into the whole thing about acting by my mother. She loved the theater. She had a very pleasant singing voice, which she used to sing for her ladies' club.

My family were Conservative Jews. My parents were both born in this country, but my father grew up on the Lower East Side, and my mother was born and raised in Harlem when there was a large Jewish 'colony' there. Eventually, they moved to Jersey City to get away from New York.