Woody makes a movie as if he were lighting 10,000 safety matches to illuminate a city. Each one is a little epiphany: topical, ethnic, or political.

Gene Wilder often said that his job as an actor wasn't to make something funny but to make it real.

I put out my hand to shake hands with Zero Mostel, and he took my hand [and] he pulled me up to his face, and he gave me a kiss on the lips. And all my nervousness went out the window.

If the physical thing you're doing is funny, you don't have to act funny while doing it...Just be real and it will be funnier

I'm funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while.

My agent at the time, Mike Medavoy, before he became a movie mogul, called me up and said, how about a movie with you and Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman? And I said, well, what makes you think of that? He said because I now handle you and Peter Marty.

Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous.