Charlie Chaplin and I would have a friendly contest: Who could do the feature film with the least subtitles?

Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.

A comedian does funny things. A good comedian does things funny.

Silence is of the gods; only monkeys chatter.

Like everyone else, I like to be with a happy crowd.

They say pantomime's a lost art. It's never been a lost art and never will be, because it's too natural to do.

No man can be a genius in slapshoes and a flat hat.

All my life I have been happiest when the folks watching me said to each other, 'Look at the poor dope, wilya?

If one more person tells me this is just like old times, I swear I'll jump out the window.

And if there is sweeter music this side of heaven I haven't heard it.

I don't act, anyway. The stuff is all injected as we go along. My pictures are made without script or written directions of any kind

You won't benefit from diverse perspectives if you aren't open to utilizing differences.

He took her hand. If it were in my power, I would take you to that place from your movie, over the rainbow where dreams come true. But all I can offer is myself, and I'm not going anywhere.

The forties are very cool and very pastoral. The fifties look like they're pastoral, and then you get a bit more turbulence.

A thought may be very commendable as a thought, but I value it chiefly as a window through which I can obtain insight on the thinker.

I eventually shifted to video. Video opened up new conditions, or freed me from old conditions.

Whatever I do, I hope it's quality, I hope it's something that's class.

You are what you are.

I thought that I wasn't an essayist because I just didn't see myself in a lot of the essays that were popular at the time. That's why I joined the poetry program in grad school.

Right, except I'm not going to lie to my mom, because what kind of (man) lies to his own mother?

When I stop becoming, that's when I worry.