When I would be myself, I was being big-headed. I was being egotistical. I was a megalomaniac, when it really was just having not to be a monkey for a few hours a day. And fulfilling the need to be a man.

(The Nutty Professor) was a labor of love. It was a total film. It was the most productive, creative work of my life.

I don't want to be remembered. I want the nice words when I can hear them.

I am probably the most selfish man you will ever meet in your life. No one gets the satisfaction or the joy that I get out of seeing kids realize there is hope.

Don't you understand how dramatic it is to be a comic? To be a fool, to get people to laugh at this show-off? Milton Berle could take Laurence Olivier and stick him under the table if he wanted to. And so could I.

I never tell an audience what they can expect. I never have and I never will. I'm an entertainer for 75 years.

You may catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but you'll get them to work harder if you use a flyswatter.