Mel Brooks > Quotes

“I've been accused of vulgarity. I say that's bullshit.”
― Mel Brooks

“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”
― Mel Brooks

“As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes.”
― Mel Brooks

“Hope for the Best. Expect the worst. Life is a play. We're unrehearsed.”
― Mel Brooks

“The only thing we don't have a god for is premature ejaculation... but I hear that it's coming quickly.”
― Mel Brooks

“Humor is just another defense against the
universe.”
― Mel Brooks

“If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy and colorful and lively.”
― Mel Brooks

“Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you've got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy, colorful and lively.”
― Mel Brooks

“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.”
― Mel Brooks

“I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know.”
― Mel Brooks

“Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love.”
― Mel Brooks

“My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.”
― Mel Brooks

“If presidents can't do it to their wives, they do it to their country. ”
― Mel Brooks

“They make us live in the crap, and now they're taking the crap away? No! ”
― Mel Brooks

“It's good to be the king.”
― Mel Brooks

“Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable. So for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast-beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one.”
― Mel Brooks

“We mock the things we are to be.”
― Mel Brooks, The 2000 Year Old Man

“Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh.”
― Mel Brooks

“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.”
― Mel Brooks

“Comedy is a very powerful component of life. It has the most to say about the human condition because if you laugh you can get by. You can struggle when things are bad if you have a sense of humor. Laughter is a protest scream against death, against the long goodbye. It’s a defense against unhappiness and depression.”
― Mel Brooks, All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

“Tragedy is when I stub my toe. Comedy is when you fall into an open manhole and die.”
― Mel Brooks

“Could be worse ... could be raining."

- Igor”
― Mel Brooks

“But I have bad taste with a deep fount of intellectuality.”
― Mel Brooks

“Failure is vital. It is an incredibly important quotient in the equation of a career. After you wipe away your tears, it’s not a bad experience and under the right circumstances it will make you better, both as a person and as an artist. I think it’s important to fail, especially between the ages of twenty and thirty. Success is like sugar. It’s too good. It’s too sweet. It’s too wonderful and it burns up very quickly. Failure is like corned beef hash. It takes a while to eat. It takes a while to digest. But it stays with you.”
― Mel Brooks, All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

“Comedy is protest. It's "I beg to differ," if you're fancy, or if you're Jewish, "Hey, listen to this!”
― Mel Brooks

“We laughed hard at real stories of tragedy. It had to be real and it had to be funny. Somebody getting hurt was wonderful. Later, as the 2000 Year Old Man with Carl Reiner I explained the difference between comedy and tragedy: If I cut my finger, that’s tragedy. Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die.”
― Mel Brooks, All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

“Carl was an immediate and intuitive foil and partner, feeding off my energy and adding to it. I once took Scotch tape and attached my nose to my cheek, my lower lip to my chin, and an eyebrow to my forehead. I looked cruelly disfigured. I burst into the writers’ room, and Carl immediately nurtured the bit: Carl: How did it happen? Who did that to you? Mel: The Nazis! They did it to me. Threw me in a ditch and did it! Carl: You mean they beat you? Disfigured you? Mel: Oh no. They took Scotch tape and stuck it all over my face. Carl broke up and hit the floor, clutching his belly and laughing like crazy. For me that was a home run. Anytime I could make Carl laugh, I knew I had a winner.”
― Mel Brooks, All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

“Evil will always triumph because good is dumb" - Dark Helmet”
― Mel Brooks

“Hope for the best, expect the worst. Life is a play, we're unrehearsed.”
― Mel Brooks

“I always thought a rich lie is better than a poor truth:”
― Mel Brooks, All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business