Tom Lehrer Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• The civil liberties types who are fighting this issue have to fight it, owing to the nature of the laws, as a matter of freedom of speech and stifling of free expression and so on. But we know what's really involved, dirty books are fun. That's all there is to it. But you can't get up in a court and say that.

  Tom Lehrer

  Fun, Dirty, Book

  5 Copy quote

• From the three, you then use one to make eight ones. You add those ones to the three, and you get one-three base eight, or, in other words, In base ten you have eleven, and you take away seven. And seven from eleven is four. Now go back to the sixty-fours, you're left with two.

  Tom Lehrer

  Two, Eight, Add

  5 Copy quote

• I didn't feel the need for anonymous affection, for people in the dark applauding. To me, it would be like writing a novel and then getting up every night and reading your novel. Everything I did is on the record and, if you want to hear it, just listen to the record.

  Tom Lehrer

  Reading, Writing, Dark

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• Be it ever so decadent, there's no place like home.

  Tom Lehrer

  Home

  Song: I Wanna Go Back to Dixie

  6 Copy quote

• The real issues I don't think most people touch. The Clinton jokes are all about Monica Lewinsky and all that stuff and not about the important things, like the fact that he wouldn't ban landmines...I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirize George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporize them. And that's not funny....OK, well, if I say that, I might get a shock laugh, but it's not really satire.

  Tom Lehrer

  Song, Real, Writing

  Sydney Morning Herald interview, www.smh.com.au. March 1, 2003.

  5 Copy quote

• To me, being funny is more important than making a point, but I don't know. Most politicians are so interested in making points that they don't ... I'd rather be funny myself, and I'd rather listen to somebody with a little sense of humor.

  Tom Lehrer

  Important, Sense Of Humor, Politician

  Source: www.avclub.com

  6 Copy quote

• You can make fun with Saddam Hussein jokes ... but you can't make fun of, say, the concentration camps. I think my target was not so much evil, but benign stupidity people doing stupid things without realising or, instead, thinking they were doing good.

  Tom Lehrer

  Fun, Stupid, Thinking

  "Stop clapping, this is serious". Sydney Morning Herald Interview, www.smh.com.au. March 1, 2003.

  6 Copy quote

• Step up and shake the hand Of someone you can't stand, You can tolerate him if you try!

  Tom Lehrer

  Hands, Trying, Steps

  5 Copy quote

• Well I wasn't really attacking the religious beliefs [in the song 'The Vatican Rag'], I was attacking the formality of the rituals of the Catholic church; however, people took it wrongly.

  Tom Lehrer

  Religious, People, Catholic

  "The Music Show" with Andrew Ford, www.abc.net.au. July 8, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• Once you've heard the joke, it's not funny anymore, but it's the way it's told. And I think that's the same with the music: The reason some of my songs have lasted longer is there's a lot of stuff packed in there. You want to hear them more than once.

  Tom Lehrer

  Song, Thinking, Want

  Interview with Stephen Thompson, www.avclub.com. May 24, 2000.

  5 Copy quote

• Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!

  Tom Lehrer

  Hippie, Air, Water

  "Pollution" (song) (1965)

  6 Copy quote

• I find that people can pass me on the street who've just seen my picture in the paper and they wouldn't recognize me. If they'd seen me on television, the heads turn. They say, "Wait a minute. I don't know who that is, but he's somebody.

  Tom Lehrer

  People, Waiting, Paper

  Interview with Stephen Thompson, www.avclub.com. May 24, 2000.

  6 Copy quote

• I don't have the temperament of a performer, and I certainly couldn't do it every night.

  Tom Lehrer

  Night, Temperament, Performers

  Interview with Stephen Thompson, www.avclub.com. May 24, 2000.

  7 Copy quote

• When someone makes a move Of which we don't approve, Who is it that always intervenes? U.N. and O.A.S., They have their place, I guess, But first send the Marines!

  Tom Lehrer

  Peace, War, Moving

  Song: Send the Marines, Album: That Was the Year That Was

  7 Copy quote

• So long, Mom I'm off to drop the bomb So don't wait up for me But while you swelter Down there in your shelter You can see me On your TV

  Tom Lehrer

  Mom, Long, Waiting

  Song: So Long, Mom

  4 Copy quote

• Hark, the Herald Tribune sings, Advertising wondrous things!

  Tom Lehrer

  Humorous, Advertising, Wondrous

  Song: A Christmas Carol, Album: More of Tom Lehrer

  7 Copy quote

• Counting in octal is just likst counting in decimal--if you don't use your thumbs.

  Tom Lehrer

  Funny, Science, Technology

  12 Copy quote

• I wasn't really a performer by temperament.

  Tom Lehrer

  Temperament, Performers

  4 Copy quote

• I'm not tempted to write a song about George W.Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them. And that's not funny.

  Tom Lehrer

  Song, Writing, Want

  "Stop clapping, this is serious". Sydney Morning Herald interview, www.smh.com.au. March 1, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

• When you attend a funeral, It is sad to think that sooner o' Later those you love will do the same for you. And you may have thought it tragic, Not to mention other adjec- Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do. (But don't you worry.

  Tom Lehrer

  Thinking, Worry, Funeral

  Song: We Will All Go Together When We Go, Album: More of Tom Lehrer

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• If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will.

  Tom Lehrer

  Hood, Ifs

  Song: Pollution, Album: That Was the Year That Was

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• I'm very proud of myself on my, whatever the literacy is, I'm pretentious, totally pretentious. I like to say 'hmm', for example.

  Tom Lehrer

  Example, Proud, Literacy

  "The Music Show" with Andrew Ford, www.abc.net.au. July 8, 2006.

  8 Copy quote

• I figure I wrote 37 songs in 20 years, and that's not exactly a full-time job. It wasn't that I was writing and writing and writing and quit.

  Tom Lehrer

  Song, Jobs, Writing

  Interview with Stephen Thompson, www.avclub.com. May 24, 2000.

  5 Copy quote

• Comedy is very important, yes. For one thing, it keeps you sane. But it's not really a conversion. I mean, it's marginally a conversion, because if people tune in or go to a nightclub or even watch television, and hear that a lot of other people are laughing at something you thought was not funny, at least it'll force you to reconsider.

  Tom Lehrer

  Mean, Laughing, People

  Interview with Stephen Thompson, www.avclub.com. May 24, 2000.

  4 Copy quote

• People would go anywhere to see a famous person in the flesh, no matter what they do.

  Tom Lehrer

  People, Flesh, Matter

  Interview with Stephen Thompson, www.avclub.com. May 24, 2000.

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