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Home: Mel Brooks Quotes

Mel Brooks Quotes

Director
Born On
1926-06-28
Birth Place
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Birth Sign
cancer
Father
James Kaminsky
Mother
Kate, Kate Kaminsky
Spouse
Anne Bancroft (m. 1964–2005), Florence Baum
Nationality
American
Education
Brooklyn College, Abraham Lincoln High School, Eastern District High School, Virginia Military Institute
Actors, Film & Theater Personalities, Directors, Comedians, T V & Movie Producers

Mel Brooks the ace comedian was once at the verge of plummeting to ground from the window of a multi-storied hotel's suite. It was during the time he was working with Sid Caesar the creator of comedy show, 'Your Show of Shows'. The duo were in Chicago and were in Caesar's hotel suite room, sharing drinks and introspecting their recent performance. Sid was not happy about how some of the jokes fared and since Mel was the writer he was stuck re-writing them.

They got the two of them right but could not wrap their head around the third one. They were up till three in the night and Sid would smoke cigar after cigar. Mel who was by then suffocated with the smoke got up and said, “Sid, I need air, I can’t breathe.” Hearing this Caesar stood up as if he were a man possessed and grabbed Mel by the seat of his pants and carried him all the way to the window and left him dangling. Mel was staring at the melee of taxis rushing by the road below still unable to comprehend things. Sid yelled “Do you have enough air? Are you happy?!” And Mel shouted back, “Oh, yeah, plenty, plenty!” Hearing this he hauls Brook back in and the two complete the remaining work. Mel reminiscences that since the fateful day he never complained again.

Look, I don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you're not alive.

Death Life
Mel Brooks

Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love.

Life Love Fear
Mel Brooks

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.

Funny Tragedy Fall
Mel Brooks

Humor is just another defense against the universe.

Universe Humor
Mel Brooks

A lot of music is mathematics. It's balance.

Music Mathematics
Mel Brooks

As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes.

World Mistakes
Mel Brooks

If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us tickets.

Funny
Mel Brooks

Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said.

Taste Truth
Mel Brooks

It's talent. Either you got it or you ain't.

Talent
Mel Brooks

If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy and colorful and lively.

Mel Brooks

Life literally abounds in comedy if you just look around you.

Life Comedy
Mel Brooks

A cinema villain essentially needs a moustache so he can twiddle with it gleefully as he cooks up his next nasty plan.

Mel Brooks

We want to get people laughing; we don't want to offend anybody.

People
Mel Brooks

When you come to Germany as a Jew you have an uneasy feeling, but I've always felt okay in Berlin.

Feelings
Mel Brooks

If presidents can't do it to their wives, they do it to their country.

Country
Mel Brooks

You got to be brave. If you feel something, you've really got to risk it.

Mel Brooks

I'm still a horse that can run. I may not be able to win the Derby, but what do you do when you retire? People retire and they vegetate. They go away and they dry up.

People
Mel Brooks

If you stand on a soapbox and trade rhetoric with a dictator you never win.

Mel Brooks

If Shaw and Einstein couldn't beat death, what chance have I got? Practically none.

Death Chance
Mel Brooks

Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance.

Good People Chance
Mel Brooks

I only direct in self-defense.

Mel Brooks

A brushstroke of vanity is good to add into the mix, to balance your timidity. We're all blessed with a lot of timidity and a lot of worry and anxiety, and vanity is a good antidote.

Good Worrying
Mel Brooks

Oh, I'm not a true genius. I'm a near genius. I would say I'm a short genius. I'd rather be tall and normal than a short genius.

Genius
Mel Brooks

The brilliance of Max Brooks is that he always quotes authorities at the back of his books that never existed. Like a Russian professor he made up that validates a story or character.

Character
Mel Brooks

Immortality is a by-product of good work.

Good Work Immortality
Mel Brooks

I don't have a mission. I don't have a torch to burn.

Mel Brooks

'Mad About You' was very fun.

Fun
Mel Brooks

I was in the army, and to me it was like a newsreel.

Army
Mel Brooks

I'm rather secular. I'm basically Jewish. But I think I'm Jewish not because of the Jewish religion at all.

Mel Brooks

He who hesitates is poor.

Mel Brooks

I was a soldier in WWII. The last couple of months of the war I was actually in combat.

Wars
Mel Brooks

There's an army story in me, and I think there's a WWII Brooks film somewhere.

Army
Mel Brooks

Well, you know, 'Spaceballs' is a weird combination, because it's a simple, sweet little fairytale, and it's crazy and out-there and making fun of and taking apart sci-fi, 'Star Wars', and 'Star Trek'.

Sweet
Mel Brooks

Everything starts with writing. And then to support your vision, your ideas, your philosophy, your jokes, whatever, you've gotta perform them and/or direct them, or sometimes just produce them.

Support Vision
Mel Brooks

Anybody can direct, but there are only eleven good writers.

Good Writers
Mel Brooks

I'll accept bad taste in a minute, as long as there's some great comedy minds and performances.

Greatness
Mel Brooks

These men both publicly and privately have done so much for me. Without Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick I would be living in a little motel just around the corner here, trying to make ends meet.

Mel Brooks

Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.

People Talent
Mel Brooks

But I have bad taste with a deep fount of intellectuality.

Taste
Mel Brooks

I wish I was better looking.

Wish
Mel Brooks

My job is to go out and entertain the most people possible.

People
Mel Brooks

Well, just being stupid and politically incorrect doesn't work. You can be politically incorrect if you're smart.

Work
Mel Brooks

I loved Westerns as a little kid, and I loved horror films.

Mel Brooks

I love writing songs. I'm a songwriter.

Love
Mel Brooks

Judd Apatow is pretty good, both as a producer and as a director.

Good
Mel Brooks

As far as songwriters, I've always been a fan of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin; those guys mean a lot to me.

Mel Brooks

You're always a little disappointing in person because you can't be the edited essence of yourself.

Mel Brooks

No, no, the songs write themselves, almost.

Songs
Mel Brooks

I like Chris Rock. He's dangerous.

Mel Brooks

Dom DeLuise was a big man in every way. He was big in size and created big laughter and joy.

Laughter Excitement
Mel Brooks

I don't believe in this business of being behind, better to be in front.

Business
Mel Brooks

I know how to make it a great musical. I've got to. It's like I've got to see it on stage.

Greatness
Mel Brooks

All short women have a delayed fuse. Marry a taller woman: My wife was an inch or two taller than me; it's a sign of security.

Wives Women
Mel Brooks

We rest our case on the production numbers.

Manufacturing Rest
Mel Brooks

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