Letterman Quotes

• There were a bunch of moments that kept cascading. Like, when we got an opportunity to play "Letterman", it gave us an opportunity to step up. It feels good to shed that skin and rise out of it.

  Justin Vernon

  Opportunity, Feel Good, Skins

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• I think comedy is on an organic upsurge right now because when I started, it was 1978 at The Comedy Store and Letterman had just stopped emceeing his morning show.

  Bob Saget

  Morning, Thinking, Comedy

  "Bob Saget talks dirty about The Aristocrats". MovieWeb Interview, movieweb.com. July 25, 2005.

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• I'd been on everybody else's show and there was always a preinterview. Somebody would come with a tape recorder and you'd talk for three or four hours, and they'd take it back and it would be transcribed, and it would be given to the writers, those many writers you see on all those shows, Larry King, Letterman, Leno, etc. And then they choose the answers that will be most evocative on their show.

  James Lipton

  Kings, Would Be, Three

  Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. February 9, 2010.

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• Never tell 'em how many lettermen you've got coming back. Tell 'em how many you lost.

  Knute Rockne

  Leadership, Sports, Ems

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• I'm not sure about that role any longer. The role used to be to mix things up and I think to a great extent it still is, but the quality of the work of the political cartoon has been succeeded by the wisecrack, the gag cartoon, so that the cartoonist becomes more of the equivalent of the Jay Leno monologues, or David Letterman monologues.

  Jules Feiffer

  Thinking, Political, Cartoon

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Jerry Seinfeld, he was doing Letterman show all the time, so he kind of had an excuse, that people know the jokes already. He didn't have time to do stand-up. A guy like me, I have no excuses.

  Dave Chappelle

  People, Guy, Kind

  Source: film.avclub.com

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• Never name it after yourself. Maybe we'll throw a with in there. That seems to work. Like Late Show With David Letterman.

  Jon Stewart

  Names, Late, Shows

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• Describing life out of the public eye to David Letterman, December 6th, 1996 It's been different. I started driving again. I started cooking again. My driving's better than my cooking. George has discovered Sam's Club.

  Barbara Bush

  Life, Eye, Discovery

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• Everybody gets inspired by different things. I grew up wanting to go up the street with a video camera because I liked watching David Letterman yell out of the ninth floor of Rockefeller Center with a megaphone at people on the street. I thought that was a riot.

  Tom Green

  People, Cameras, Different

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• We will try to honor David Letterman achievement by doing the best show we can.And occasionally making the network very mad at us.

  Stephen Colbert

  Mad, Achievement, Honor

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• Has anyone seen me on Letterman? Two million people watch that show and I don't know where they are. You might have seen this next comedian on the Late Show, but I think more people have seen me at the store. That should be my introduction. "You might have seen this next comedian at the store," and people would say "Hell yes I have!"

  Mitch Hedberg

  Funny, Humor, Thinking

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• I gotta tell you, I do not envy whoever they try to put in David Letterman's chair. Folks those are some huge shoes to fill, and some really big pants.

  Stephen Colbert

  Leadership, Work, Shoes

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• Probably the most fun I've ever had, actually, acting. Because it was the perfect extension of the stuff that I'd started to do on Late Night With David Letterman, and when I look back on all my work, it was probably the best possible incarnation of Chris Elliott, of me.

  Chris Elliott

  Fun, Night, Perfect

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I was told David Letterman and Kaufman had heart attacks on the same day: David Letterman's heart attack was at a hospital in NYC. Kaufman's heart attack was at the red light district in Amsterdam, Holland. I think Kaufman had more fun.
  You're a great artist. I just love the way you painted my portrait.

  Howard Stern

  Fun, Heart, Thinking

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• I want to be the Letterman of metal. I want five nights a week, Monday to Friday, 11 to 12, live. I always shoot for the moon.

  Eddie Trunk

  Friday, Monday, Moon

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• Some people are just really goofy kind of guitar acts, and they go out and do these colleges and start making a fortune pretty early on. And other people - I know guys who are great comics, who've done the Letterman show many times, who still barely pay their bills.

  Greg Giraldo

  College, Guitar, People

  Interview with Ken P., www.ign.com. June 30, 2004.

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• Between me and my wife, there's this joke where I'll be doing some fun interview, and I'll get off the phone and be like, "That guy was an idiot." A lot of times, interviews are like being asked a list of questions. Invariably, there will be this part where they think you're a writer for Letterman: "Just off the top of your head, tell me the 10 most influential bands on you." And you're actually asked to come up with a spontaneous list. It's like, "Dude, I'm not living in High Fidelity."

  John Flansburgh

  Fun, Thinking, Wife

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Half the stuff I've written was written when I was half asleep watching the David Letterman show when some boring actress was on talking about herself. I would just mute the TV, look over to the computer and start plugging in notes. Then the next morning you go "Wow, I like this". I'd almost forget what I did, and then it would inspire me to go on and do the next thing. That's what I do. Just kind of follow my own little thing.

  Terry Bozzio

  Morning, Talking, Inspire

  Source: beintheloopchicago.com

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• I had some jokes that were dirty. And some of it is when I started making appearances on Conan and Letterman back in the late '90s, I think. You had to remove the curse words, or you couldn't do some of the more explicit jokes.

  Jim Gaffigan

  Dirty, Thinking, Conan

  "Comic Jim Gaffigan On Stand-Up, Faith And Opening For The Pope". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 24, 2015.

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• Cookies at both of them. The cookies are probably better at Letterman though.

  Jim Gaffigan

  Cookies

  Brightest Young Things Interview, brightestyoungthings.com. May 21, 2007.

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• I feel good about being able to take bluegrass on to television like 'Letterman' and 'The View,' and I've heard nice things about being able to do that. I really haven't felt any negativity toward me or my music.

  Steve Martin

  Nice, Views, Feel Good

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• I think the first time I was on The David Letterman Show, he didn't quite know what to expect. I think people generally are just a little afraid.

  Paul Reubens

  Thinking, People, Littles

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I mean, if they're doing a television show every night like Jon Stewart, or Ellen, or David Letterman, then they have their bunch of people who are sitting on a payroll someplace, who are coming up with material every day of the week. Those are the people who wind up doing the bulk of the work for them when they host the thing, because that's their team.

  Bruce Vilanch

  Team, Mean, Night

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• It was early on when I was really focused and obsessed with doing The Tonight Show and Letterman and stuff like that. Then, I quickly realized that those things don't make or break a career.

  Gary Gulman

  Careers, Make Or Break, Tonight

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• I would like to take this opportunity [on Letterman] just to tell the press to KISS MY SKINNY WHITE ASS!

  Calista Flockhart

  Kissing, Opportunity, White

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