Latest Mel Brooks Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• My job is to go out and entertain the most people possible. The job is to make people laugh. I don't have a mission. I don't have a torch to burn.

  Mel Brooks

  Jobs, People, Laughing

  "Q&A with Mel Brooks". Interview with Patrick Kevin Day, beta.latimes.com. May 19, 2008.

• You want to be as smart as you can about being stupid.

  Mel Brooks

  Smart, Stupid, Want

  "Q&A with Mel Brooks". Interview with Patrick Kevin Day, beta.latimes.com. May 19, 2008.

• Organizations like the CIA and the FBI are still kind of supermen, kind of SS troops: We're blond and the best and everyone else should be incinerated. They don't know right from wrong. That's what makes a satire of these government bureaus really funny.

  Mel Brooks

  Government, Organization, Troops

• When you get big special effects pictures, sci-fi and things, there's little or no comedy. Or it's a domestic comedy and there's not one special effect. But very rarely do these things fuse and come out right.

  Mel Brooks

  Special, Littles, Comedy

  "Q&A with Mel Brooks". Interview with Patrick Kevin Day, www.latimes.com. May 19, 2008.

• What ignited the rocket that sent you up into the vast regions of comedy, and why? I would say, for me, that philosophical treatise about having black beginnings and wanting love to compensate for that, wanting audiences and wanting attention - I say, "Au contraire." Completely opposite. I want the continuation of my mother's incredible love and attention to me.

  Mel Brooks

  Mother, Philosophical, Opposites

  "Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

• The thing is to be brave and move the audience with you, instead of cater to the lowest common denominator, you know, slipping on a banana peel and falling on your ass. You got to move the audience a little further ahead in terms of their appreciation of what is comedy. It's complicated.

  Mel Brooks

  Appreciation, Moving, Fall

  "Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

• The audience. They see the name Mel Brooks, they want something really funny. They don't want to be moved; they don't want to be taught any lessons. [...] I get more letters for Twelve Chairs and Life Stinks than I get from any other movies, because people actually agree with the philosophy, or were moved, or they love the movie.

  Mel Brooks

  Philosophy, Names, Want Something

  "Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

• There's a lot of things that I've done to stick into the box set. You never have it this good. I think people should bargain. They shouldn't just buy the set, it's a little expensive [anyway]. But they should say - I'll give them dialogue, I'm a good writer.

  Mel Brooks

  Thinking, People, Giving

  "INTERVIEW Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

• The Twelve Chairs is about the same thing. It's all about money or love. We know we need money, we know we have to get money, we know we have to hurt others to get money. But we don't know until maybe it's a little too late in life that love is the most important thing. Love, friendship, affection, bonhomie, whatever. Those are the only things that really count: to love and be loved.

  Mel Brooks

  Hurt, Love Is, Important

  "Mel Brooks on how to play Hitler, and how he almost died making Spaceballs". Interview with Steve Heisler, www.avclub.com. December 13, 2012.

• My movies were not reaping the kind of emotional rewards that I wanted. I wanted them to be appreciated and they weren't. I didn't want the reviews to say, "Mel Brooks has made another movie," and you get the title somewhere in the second paragraph.

  Mel Brooks

  Emotional, Titles, Want

  "Mel Brooks Remembers the Funniest Movie He Ever Made". Interview with Jason Guerrasio, www.esquire.com. May 21, 2014.

• There's no such thing as too far. If it works it's funny, if it doesn't work it's too far, it's stupid. Really there's no such thing as "too far." You're joining the politically correct when you use words like "too far." You don't want to join the army of politically correct.

  Mel Brooks

  Stupid, Army, Joining

  "Mel Brooks Remembers the Funniest Movie He Ever Made". Interview with Jason Guerrasio, www.esquire.com. May 21, 2014.

• I've always loved songwriting, and I vowed to be a songwriter like Cole Porter when I was only 9 years old.

  Mel Brooks

  Years, Songwriting, Songwriters

  Billboard Interview, www.billboard.com. December 8, 2005.

• It would be hypocritical of me to take issue with anything in questionable taste, seeing that I invented bad taste in films.

  Mel Brooks

  Issues, Would Be, Taste

  "Mel Brooks Remembers the Funniest Movie He Ever Made". Interview with Jason Guerrasio, www.esquire.com. May 21, 2014.

• I usually start with the words. The rhythm of the words gives me the rhythm of the song, and then I look for the musical highlights in it to carry it.

  Mel Brooks

  Song, Giving, Musical

  Q&A: Mel Brooks, www.billboard.com. December 8, 2005.

• When I was a little kid, if somebody said they were thirty-five, I'd say "Oooh, they're going to die soon". But as I get older it doesn't mean a thing. You mustn't ever give in. Never give in to thinking you're old, because you're never old. Your mind, and I tell you this and listen to me carefully, your mind is never, ever old, it's eternally young.

  Mel Brooks

  Mean, Kids, Thinking

• Comedy is lively, comedy is joy, and that's what keeps us [people] going, we've got to look forward to little, little happiness's. Little, little joys, and comedy is very, very important, it's a vital. We underestimate its value, but we should see more comedies. Comedy is life giving, it's invigorating. I really believe it.

  Mel Brooks

  Believe, People, Giving

• No creative writer knows what is commercial and what isn't. You just write from your heart, you write from the deepest, creative urges in you, and you write from your soul, and you just either get lucky or not.

  Mel Brooks

  Writing, Heart, Creative

• Creative people should always be striving, they should always be hungry, they should be looking for the next place to go.

  Mel Brooks

  People, Creative, Places To Go

• The audience got jaded, they want a hit, they want a big success, and so you don't want to experiment because you say, well, I'll disappoint the audience, they may not like it, I better do something that I think is more commercial.

  Mel Brooks

  Thinking, May, Want

• When we got to our hotel rooms, mosquitoes as big as George Foreman were waiting for us. They were sitting in armchairs with their legs crossed.

  Mel Brooks

  Waiting, Mosquitoes, Sitting

  "Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview". Interview with Henry Blodget, www.thedailybeast.com. October 18, 2014.

• Any man's greatness is a tribute to the nobility of all mankind, so when we celebrate the genius of [Leo] Tolstoy, we say, "Look! One of our boys made it! Look what we're capable of!"

  Mel Brooks

  Boys, Greatness, Men

  "Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview". Interview with Alex Belth, www.thedailybeast.com. February 16, 2014.

• I try to give my work everything I've got, because when you're dead or you're out of the business or you're in an old actors' home somewhere, if you've done a good job, your work will still be 16 years old and dancing and healthy and pirouetting and arabesquing all over the place. And they'll say, "That's who he is! He's not this decaying skeleton."

  Mel Brooks

  Jobs, Home, Skeletons

  "Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview". Interview with Alex Belth, www.thedailybeast.com. February 16, 2014.

• Woody Allen is a genius. His films are wonderful. He's poetic, but he's also a critic. He artfully steps back from a social setting and criticizes it without - I suspect - without letting himself be vulnerable to it.

  Mel Brooks

  Genius, Steps, Poetic

• My liveliness is based on an incredible fear of death. In order to keep death at bay, I do a lot of "Yah! Yah! Yah!" And death says, "All right. He's too noisy and busy. I'll wait for someone who's sitting quietly, half asleep."

  Mel Brooks

  Order, Waiting, Sitting

  "Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview". Interview with Alex Belth, www.thedailybeast.com. February 16, 2014.

• The more serious the situation, the funnier the comedy can be. The greatest comedy plays against the greatest tragedy. Comedy is a red rubber ball and if you throw it against a soft, funny wall, it will not come back. But if you throw it against the hard wall of ultimate reality, it will bounce back and be very lively. Very, very few people understand this.

  Mel Brooks

  Wall, Reality, Play

  "Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview". Interview with Alex Belth, www.thedailybeast.com. February 16, 2014.