I find painting a much slower process than comedy, where you can go a mile a minute verbally and hope to God that some of the people out there understand you.

I may not be playing with a full deck but I don't need a full deck. I have four aces.

I was always an observer, even as a child. I could be satisfied to sit in a car for 3 hours and just look at the street go by while my mother went shopping.

You've got to be an observer. And you've got to take time to listen to people, talk, to watch what they do.

I know you can be funny without being filthy.

If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it.

I began painting well before I started doing comedy. In fact, when I came out of the war in 1946, I enrolled in art school in Dayton, Ohio. I painted for three years, and then show business took hold.