Bobcat Goldthwait
I'm not into comedies that are joke-driven.
The movies I make don't take place in reality.
I like to go to the movies and watch characters who make me question how I see the world.
I'm making movies about people as flawed as myself and the viewers. So if you just have a reptilian brain and live your life simply by reacting to things, my movies aren't going to work for you.
I've always been battling this perception people have of me, this character. It follows me around. 'Bubba the Bear' shows up when I'm checking into a hotel, when I'm on a plane. I can't get upset with people if they're only aware of a small part of my body of work. But inside I do.
I started out making fun of comedy. Then I became the thing I was making fun of.
Success is for creeps.
I have an aversion to comedy where everybody speaks in punchlines.
I think I hang out with some pretty witty people, but we're never that funny.
I actually really like being in the woods.
I started doing stand-up when I was 15 and doing Letterman when I was 20. So I've been doing stand-up comedy and clubs for over 30 years. That's a long time.
I do think there are more people who would probably related to my movies and who aren't aware of them.
My movies are always about the kooks and the outsiders.
I'm fully aware of people's perception of me, so when I start taking myself too seriously, I have to remember that, to them, I'm just the guy from 'Police Academy.'
I actually believe that the basis of a good relationship isn't liking the same things, it's hating the same things.
I'm always dealing with this sadness. I don't want to be Morrissey or anything, but it is a thing I deal with it. Every day, when I wake up, I have to make a decision to fight this depression. That sounds horrible but I'm fine with it; it's who I am; it's my life. I try not to let it cripple me.
I continue to do standup because there's a connection with a live audience - there are skills that you do learn as a standup comedian that help you on a set.
Whenever people hear that Kurt Cobain was a fan of my standup, it's like hearing Jimi Hendrix loved Buddy Hackett or something.
I don't find movies shocking.
I choose not to be in front of the camera. Sometimes I do get offered parts, but I really like just making movies and telling stories.
I was in punk bands when I was a kid, and then I would do stand-up in between bands - which wasn't any different from my singing.
I'm always amazed that people are interested in comedy.
I never was obsessed with comedians. When I was a little, little boy, I'd watch, like, George Carlin on 'Dinah Shore.'
Michael Moore got booed at the Oscars, so how liberal is Hollywood? Honestly, it's not liberal enough for me!
Obviously I don't hate America. I do believe that we are becoming - and I can only judge it by my lifetime, 'cause I don't know what it was like in the 1800s - but it just seems that as a nation, we are becoming really, really nasty, and not concerned with any kind of truth.
I don't read or watch anything that has to do with Lindsay Lohan.
In the rock n' roll world, I'm someone who's responsible and levelheaded.
I'm the Emily Dickinson of screenplays.
I do live a very Hugh Beaumont existence. I'm up every morning, taking my kids to school and all that, which obviously does interest me. But then it's taking meetings with goofballs and auditioning for crap, and then I spend a lot of time on the road.
I was really big in the '80s.
I've probably done myself a disservice as a brand because the movies I've made. They've all been completely different.
Certainly, shows like 'Black Mirror' helped me. I should send them a fruit basket.
I've been making fun of administrations since I was a teenager onstage.
People go, 'Oh, Trump must be good for comedy,' and I go, 'Ehhh.'
If I was a young man, I might have bypassed the whole comedian-actor thing and just been a filmmaker. Then I'd probably have spent my whole life going, 'I wonder if I could have been a comedian.'
To make the films I want, I just have to live within my means and scale down my lifestyle - and be with somebody who's cool with that.
Which is worse - being a has-been or being the guy interviewing a has-been?
Every week, there's a different equivalent of Charlie Sheen having a breakdown. I knew about Kim Kardashian getting married - and then getting divorced - and there's no reason I should. I don't have hostility toward Kim Kardashian - just toward the people who take that stuff seriously.
I don't get too hung up on what people think of me.
In the past, the movies I've made are perceived as dark, but a lot of comedies are way darker.
The movies I make, I never see them as accurately portraying a life, but more like fables.
When I was at my most outrageous and destructive, I alienated almost everybody.
I had fame and wealth and things that are supposed to make you happy, but I wasn't happy, because there's no importance on having a fulfilling life. So in my mid-40s, that was my pursuit - making films that interested me, films that I would like to go see.
All I do is I have this insulated life with my wife and my daughter and a couple of friends who I try to see, but it doesn't even happen.
If you raise a cool adult, that's an achievement.
My wife and daughter both bust me on how much I am the guy yelling at kids to get off my lawn.
The environment on the sets of the movies I make, it's usually all friends and people that know each other, because no one's getting rich or making money, so it's always about, hopefully, that everyone's on the same page.
I've been known to high-five, and I have a soft spot for Green Day.
Animals may be our friends, but they won't pick you up at the airport.Collection: Animal