If you're alive, make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death.

My brothers went to work at 12 and put themselves through school and brought the family out of ruin into food and clothing.

Everything starts with writing. And then to support your vision, your ideas, your philosophy, your jokes, whatever, you've gotta perform them and/or direct them, or sometimes just produce them.

My liveliness is based on an incredible fear of death. In order to keep death at bay, I do a lot of "Yah! Yah! Yah!" And death says, "All right. He's too noisy and busy. I'll wait for someone who's sitting quietly, half asleep."

Directing is a terrible, anxious process. It's all collaboration, and if you have a dream, it's diluted very quickly by the slightest ineptness in any of your collaborators. They're supposed to help you, but too often they help you into your grave.

Not only should we laugh about Hitler. We must laugh about him. Especially in Berlin.

Good taste is the enemy of comedy.