You can't force inspiration. It's like trying to catch a butterfly with a hoop but no net. If you keep your mind open and receptive, though, one day a butterfly will land on your finger.

A comedian is not a person who opens a funny door - he's the person who opens a door funny.

The author O. Henry taught me about the value of the unexpected. He once wrote about the noise of flowers and the smell of birds—the birds were chickens and the flowers dried sunflowers rattling against a wall.

We must not confuse distortion with innovation; distortion is useless change, art is beneficial change.

Comedy is a very, very, very stringent business.

Jackie Gleason said that comedy is the most exacting form of dramatic art, because it has an instant critic: laughter.

I'm still astonished that somebody would offer me a job and pay me to do what I wanted to do.