We were in front of a live audience and I would be acting with the man who was playing my lover, and we used those words, and the audience would titter and laugh, and make me uncomfortable doing the scenes. …
BILLY CRYSTALWhen comedy is good, it’s jazz. The beats of it, the looseness, the improvisational part, the music-the way you hit the inflection, the high notes of a joke. It’s all melody to me.
More Billy Crystal Quotes
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You have to really respect what your kids are doing with their kids and how they’re raising them. You can’t push your way into areas where you shouldn’t be saying anything.
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The Passion of the Christ opened up on Ash Wednesday, had a Good Friday.
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Don’t give up your power.
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I used to limp around my neighborhood imitating him. I did my Bar Mitzvah with an Oklahoma drawl.
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I have 40-something intros [that Davis Jr. did]; all are different, none of them happened. And it was hilarious.
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What’s so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you’re constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that.
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I don’t like heights. This is why I stopped growing at fifth grade.
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I was introducing [director and producer] Hal Roach – Mr. Roach was 100 years old, he was one of the fathers of early days in films, he put Laurel with Hardy, he created the Our Gang kids, and all these silent movies he did – he was a giant.
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I started examining history and then everything related to the theater. History, art, all the other studies, if I could link them into the theater, then it became alive for me. It just opened up my eyes.
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I’m a sucker for a free tuxedo.
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Change is such hard work.
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I never stopped believing in us and I never felt like I was wanting for anything, except for my father, and that was not going to be. I describe in the book [that] I don’t think I ever felt young again in that way.
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From the first time I saw Sid Caesar be funny I knew that’s what I had to do.
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I love doing it [hosting the Oscars] because I love the danger of it and you have to come through and think on your feet.
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I think when I feel I’m at my best is when I’m on stage, and it’s my version of jazz because it’s just riffing or something.
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