The greatness of America is that it produces exuberant geniuses like Louis Armstrong and Fred Astaire and Leonard Bernstein. We are meant to be a jazzy people who talk big and jump on the table and dance; we aren't supposed to be dopey and glum and brood over old injuries.

Where I come from, when a Catholic marries a Lutheran it is considered the first step on the road to Minneapolis.

Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.

I was afraid you had deceased,' he said. 'Or gotten engrossed in a long book.

I hear a little firecracker go off when you come up with a good rhyme.

I usually don't work with other people; I do the whole show myself.

Secret of life is to go through something harrowing that doesnt kill you...and to love one woman for the rest of your life.