Oscar Levant > Quotes

“There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.”
― Oscar Levant

“I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients.”
― Oscar Levant

“Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.”
― Oscar Levant

“The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.”
― Oscar Levant

“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.”
― Oscar Levant

“Happiness isn't something you experience, it's something you remember.”
― Oscar Levant

“A pun is the lowest form of humor—when you don't think of it first.”
― Oscar Levant

“It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts.”
― Oscar Levant

“Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.”
― Oscar Levant

“Once I make up my mind, I'm full of indecision.”
― Oscar Levant

“Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.”
― Oscar Levant

“So little time and so little to do.”
― Oscar Levant

“I'm controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me”
― Oscar Levant

“I'm going to memorize your name and throw my head away.”
― Oscar Levant

“In some situations I was difficult, in odd moments impossible, in rare moments loathsome, but at my best unapproachably great.”
― Oscar Levant

“First I brush my teeth and then I sharpen my tongue.”
― Oscar Levant

“Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.”
― Oscar Levant

“You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. (Oscar trying to talk his way out of a speeding ticket)”
― Oscar Levant

“There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side.”
― Oscar Levant

“It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view.”
― Oscar Levant

“On Ira Gershwin:
I remember when he was given the manuscript of a novel written by a woman friend who had hopes of having it published. To his astonishment it turned out to be the dirtiest, most pornographic book he had ever read. When the lady mentioned that she intended to use a nom de plume, Ira suggested she call herself Henrietta Miller.”
― Oscar Levant, The Unimportance of Being Oscar

“I’ve stepped on too many toes on the way down.”
― Oscar Levant

“I envy people who drink — at least they know what to blame everything on.”
― Oscar Levant

“I've changed, I'm nice to people and I'm not so self-centered. What I'm trying to do now is think of the other person. The only trouble is, I've found that the other person thinks only of himself.”
― Oscar Levant, Memoirs of an Amnesiac

“Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath.”
― Oscar Levant

“It's not a pretty face, I grant you. But underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.”
― Oscar Levant

“I had always resented sleep as an intrusion on my nocturnal self-pity”
― Oscar Levant, A Smattering of Ignorance

“When I can't sleep, I read a book by Steve Allen.”
― Oscar Levant

“Ballet is the faeries' baseball”
― Oscar Levant

“It's not who you are, it's what you don't become that hurts the most.”
― Oscar Levant