Quotes from David Steinberg

I rewrote it and I took all your notes. Read it again, that kind of persistence paid off.

Being a lawyer in New York sucks because you're working eighty, sometimes a hundred hours a week.

Great Canadian comics are often outsiders and insiders at the same time. That's a great perspective for a comedian.

When I started, you didn't make a lot of money by being a comedian. You didn't get a lot of respect.

My father was a rabbi and had a little synagogue in Canada, so I'm from Canada. I left there at 16.

Your relationship with an agent has got to be mutually beneficial. If you can't help their careers, then they're not going to be interested.

I used to have a theory actually that, if you've had a good childhood, a good marriage and a little bit of money in the bank, you're going to make a lousy comedian.

When I started, you didn't make a lot of money by being a comedian. You didn't get a lot of respect.

I don't really dissect comedy. Nothing kills off humor more than overanalyzing it.

Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan - a Mount Rushmore of incompetence.

When I talk to Steve Martin, he's joyful when he talks about comedy.

Here's the rule that I set for myself, and I believe it - even on a show like 'Curb Your Enthusiasm': the more personal you are, the wider your audience.

I used to have a theory actually that, if you've had a good childhood, a good marriage and a little bit of money in the bank, you're going to make a lousy comedian.

My influences were Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce.

We were the guys on the other side. It was hilarious.

In comedy, looking back is more important than looking around at your contemporaries because they are too much influenced by the same time period as you are.

I don't really dissect comedy. Nothing kills off humor more than overanalyzing it.

The worst thing that can happen to a comedian is to do a documentary on your life and you're watching it with an audience and there's not a laugh.

On 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' it takes almost a year to get 10 shows written. It always reminds me of my old yeshiva days, where you used to sit over a piece of Talmud and analyze everything that was going on.

My father never lived to see his dream come true of an all-Yiddish-speaking Canada.

The interesting thing about improvisation is you're making something up in front of the audience. Now music helps you out a little bit because you have an instrument that'll separate you from the audience.

The one thing an audience always has in common with a comedian is troubles. The Yiddish word for that is tsuris. You're always putting your tsuris on stage whether you like it or not. No one is untroubled, unless they're just, you know, an imbecile.

I don't believe any particular ethnic group is smarter than any other group.

Comedians talk to other comedians the way jazz musicians can talk to each other.