Adam McKay Quotes

Can anything good come of a backward way of thinking like judging someone based on skin color? No way.

Creative freedom is a huge carrot.

Dave Herman as Michael Bolton is one of my favorite performances ever.

You have to be able to fail with the improv. You have to not care.

'Blazing Saddles' is one of the funniest movies ever made.

Normally when it hits two and a half, three hours, the audience gets exhausted and start yawning.

The easiest time to be funny is during a fairly serious situation. That way you can break the ice.

Nothing is funnier than confidently doing the wrong thing.

We're always looking for the backbone, the central idea, and once you have that you know everything can circle around it.

I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it's there and to push it just a little bit faster.

There are many aspects to directing that have a romantic place in people's minds.

The easiest time to be funny is during a fairly serious situation. That way, you can break the ice. It's crazy, but even at funerals, people will get huge laughs.

If you make action movies, the critics will savage you, and then your movies are outdated the following week with the new wave of special effects.

Celebrities and 'famous' people are just regular folks. I know, it's a shocking and potentially dangerous statement.

In general foreign invested companies who come to America to start a company, to open a manufacturing business or whatnot, they actually provide much higher wages than American companies.

There are so many shoot-'em-up, action, jingoistic TV shows and movies that are made every year. I think the final line is that Hollywood is populist.

There's a lot of things you can't control. But you can always be a pro.

Every time I wrote a sketch that was in my voice, Ferrell would just do it better.

It's just funny that Americans have to contend with 2000 channels, and 60 different specific news sources, and the confusion that it creates, and the junk that we get to see is hilarious.

I always give myself a little part in every movie.

There's always way less improv than people think. The truth is something like 15 percent.

Animals talking are very rarely funny. But animals behaving as animals - always funny.

Blanket cynicism toward government has always existed.

I think what's dangerous [about comedy] is that you're coming into the room announcing your intentions.

As for movies, what's great about comedy is that if your movie gets laughs and makes money, you have freedom.

I have certain beliefs about how people should treat employees and how companies should be run, but I was really surprised though this process to learn that those beliefs are actually good business.

I would never call myself cultural elite, but you might be cultural elite.

I'm not against banking. Banking allowed our modern society to happen, it is essential. It connects the work through finance, so banking is good.

I could see how people get addicted to animation, and I understand why it's so great for comedy. You can do whatever you want and it just happens.

I don't think there's ever been a moment in history where that, as an artistic message, has played very well, because people in their hearts know that's terrible and a lie.

As far as how much you listen to the audience, you listen to them when they really hate something.

The crush of lobbyists on Washington and purchase of the media by corporations has created a big business-run government and a worthless press leaving Americans screwed and ill-informed.

Any time Chris Nolan wants to call me for advice, he can.

White-collar crime has been marketed - billions of dollars have been put in to have us be bored by it.

Anyone in the comedy world knows that Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell are two of the funniest guys around.

The way you really stop Al-Qaeda is by stopping their funding. It's not by carpet-bombing or land invasions or anything.

Every time a congressman or pundit says its 'class warfare' to increase taxes on the wealthy, it's a massive lie.

For my money, I don't think there's been a better comedy than 'Kung Fu Hustle' in a lot of years. That movie just knocked me over.

I gotta say - if I clicked on a movie interview, and the first part was all about Walt Whitman, I'd love that article.

We punch mirrors and we explore our darker selves. No, it's just an amalgam of all newscasters that we grew up with. Sort of like before there was cable, when these people were like gods.

Old man with an old phone. That's never not funny.

All we have is our vote. But it's powerful.

The one thing for sure is, I don't ever want to waste a movie. I don't ever want to waste effort.

Most of what's tricky about comedy is the perception of it and the audience's expectation.

David O. Russell is probably my favorite filmmaker. He's not only a great director, but he's also a great writer.

The idea of 24-hour news, if you really step back, is pretty insane. Just even saying '24-hour news' almost has satire laced in it.

There's nothing the people love more than a Federal Reserve joke.

All you can really do as director is sort of set a tone.

For a documentary it's so important to find the characters and to find people who will give you access to film

In general, the final filter of Hollywood is for-profit. Nothing goes through unless it can make money.