Latest Tom Lehrer Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Comedy is very important. 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, People, Laughing

  Source: www.avclub.com

• 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

• If you asked me to write a rock song or a rap song, I couldn't do it because they're not in my fingers.

  Tom Lehrer

  Song, Rap, Writing

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

• I'm not an original composer. The tunes are not stolen from other tunes necessarily except in a few cases, but they're in the style of songs that I grew up with.

  Tom Lehrer

  Song, Style, Tunes

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

• 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.

• The people who came to hear me perform or to buy my records were not the type who would be offended [by the song 'The Vatican Rag']. But I gather that there were other people who were offended.

  Tom Lehrer

  People, Records, Would Be

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

• Always predict the worst, and you'll be hailed as a prophet.

  Tom Lehrer

  Prophet, Worst

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

• 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.

• And although I'm all for freedom of expression and against censorship, there are certain things I'm not willing to go to jail for.

  Tom Lehrer

  Expression, Jail, Censorship

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

• If I see a movie star in the department store buying something, I'll kind of sidle up and see what they're saying, what they look like, how they sound. That's an invasion of privacy.

  Tom Lehrer

  Stars, Sound, Buying Something

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• I would do nightclubs and concerts - particularly concerts, which is mostly what I did - and only people who already agreed with me would show up. People weren't going to come and inadvertently turn on their television set and find this offensive stuff coming out.

  Tom Lehrer

  People, Television, Stuff

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

• I've heard it quoted that I was dead. You can't believe anything you read. That was just an off-hand remark somebody picked up, and now it's been quoted and quoted, and therefore misquoted.

  Tom Lehrer

  Believe, Hands, Heard

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

• 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.

• Everything is so weird in politics that it's very hard to be funny about it, I think.

  Tom Lehrer

  Thinking, Hard

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