Larry David
In those days, reserve duty lasted for six years, which, I might add, was three times as long as service in the regular army, although to be perfectly honest, I was unable to fulfill my entire obligation because I was taking acting classes and they said I could skip my last year.
I have reservations about everything I do.
And eventually as I kept writing it, something emerged that was not quite me but a version of me.
Even back then, I exuded self-confidence, and that drives women crazy.
I don't think anyone really is interested in reading about my emotional state. It's not even interesting to me.
I just feed off the energy of the audience.
I just wanted laughs - that's really what I was after.
I think that for the most part, when I started doing comedy, it had become very commercialized.
It's that I wasn't suited to do the kind of comedy that these people were coming to hear - mainstream comedy.
Sure, being a reservist wasn't as glamorous, but I was the one who had to look at myself in the mirror.
The only change I can really see is that I don't have to shop for pants in stores anymore.
Until I started doing standup, there were some very bleak days.
Well, as you know, I'm really only happy when I'm on stage.
You write about what you know.
It began to dawn on me that perhaps my country needed me more at home than overseas.
Hey, I may loathe myself, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm Jewish.
There are times when I'm driving home after a day's shooting, thinking to myself, That scene would've been so much better if I had written it out.
There's a sense of spontaneity, and no emphasis on jokes in this show. People generally talk the way they talk in life if you were in this particular situation.
It's not every day that you get to be affectionate around something, it just doesn't happen that often.
I guess I still feel that I'm a comedian; if I had to pick one thing that I feel like I could do, it would be that. That doesn't mean that I like it, but I feel that's what I am.
I tell people that I've now done one decent thing in my life. Albeit inadvertently.
I wanted to make a living, but I really was not interested in money at all. I was interested in being a great comedian.
Actually I walk around with the Emmy wherever I go, but I'm very casual about it.
I have quite a house. People come over and I go, 'I know, I'm sorry.'
When I was living in New York, there was a lot of screaming in my life. I would just get into these altercations all the time. Being in public, dealing with shopkeepers, just trying to cross the street - things like that.
If I was going onstage, of course I would talk about it. How could I not?
I defy anyone to produce any evidence that the word 'happy' has ever crossed my lips. I am not now, nor have I ever been, 'happy.'
I'm one of the idiots that negotiates after I write.
Woody Allen likes to do a lot of master shots. He likes to get the whole thing in one take, and so you could be going along doing a scene, and then the next to last line, all of a sudden, you stumble, and you have to go back to first base.
Obviously comedic styles do change.
There's also a certain rhythm to the way Jews talk that might be funny.
Once I know people know who I am, it gives me a lot of licence and freedom to behave in ways I wouldn't normally.
People don't yell nasty things at actors - they let them continue.
I still think of that guy I was without a wife or kids, and I still want to entertain that guy. The lonely guy, the frustrated guy, the guy with no money - this is the guy who needs to laugh.
My defensiveness in life really helps me as a driver.
Well, I always think the worst things are going to happen here, because I'm - basically inside, I'm a bad person, and so the bad kind of takes over.
I don't write shows with dialogue where actors have to memorize dialogue. I write the scenes where we know everything that's going to happen. There's an outline of about seven or eight pages, and then we improvise it.
I don't like people cleaning my room.
You know, I'm really not that bright.
I never thought for a second that anything I ever did was going to make someone cringe. That never occurred to me.
There's nothing that reflects me. I'm unreflectable!
Sometimes I have these fantasies of just moving to a foreign country and coming back with a full head of hair. Or not even come back! Make a new life there with hair... Change my name, just see what happens.
If I tried to flirt with a woman and she didn't know who I was, she would run away.
The best situation is being a single parent. The best part about is that you get time off, too, because the kids are with their mom, so it's the best of both worlds. There's a lot to be said for it.
I don't really know much about TV and what people want to see. I'm not that well-informed about it.
I'm not a person who embraces challenges. I run from challenges. I break world records running from challenges.
Anything that's for free, people will take. They don't discriminate.
Let's not forget, I got divorced.
I think Michael Moore is a hero.