I was out in the combat engineers. We would throw up bridges in advance of the infantry but mainly we would just throw up.

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

You want me to admit I'm a four-foot, six-inch freckle-faced person of Jewish extraction? I admit it. All but the extraction. But being short never bothered me for three seconds. The rest of the time I wanted to commit suicide.

Immortality is a by-product of good work.

Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.

A lot of music is mathematics. It's balance.

One day, God said 'Let there be prey.' And he created pigeons, rabbits, lambs and Gene Wilder.