My Judaism has always been a great pride with me.
— Jerry Lewis
I'm always thinking about future projects and at the same time trying to finish the project you're in the middle off.
I say to everybody, love is what wakes you up in the morning, love is what makes you walk, and love is what makes you hope.
What's happened at 85 is I've lost my appetite. I used to be a little hog when I was young. But now I really don't seem to need it.
You can't hold comedy back, because it needs to be exposed.
I learned from my dad that when you walk in front of an audience, they are the kings and queens, and you're but the jester.
I got the 'Max Rose' script, and I fell in love with it. It just hit me. It was something that needed to be made.
God hadn't made me handsome, but he'd given me something, I always felt: funny bones.
I've raised my boys the old-fashioned way, with spankings, sending them upstairs if they misbehave at parties, the works. I believe discipline is the proof of love.
I'm shocked to be saying this, but as a child, I never went to a circus. It cost too much.
I go where the action is.
There's something wonderful about taking a tag off a pair of socks, off a shirt, off a jacket. I really think that it has to do with my wanting to give myself all the perks that there are. It's part of my psychosis.
The people at Columbia Pictures have been great, but I had to tell them, 'Please don't be nice to me. Just pay me.'
I think so much in time. I always have. Even at 20, I thought in terms of time, that I don't have a lot of time left. And I want to do so many things.
There's nothing more dramatic than the comedy I've done. Because the comedy I've done is to get to the audience, get them to feel it, or they won't laugh.
For a comic to put a public performance in jeopardy for a snickering little laugh - no, no, no, I don't believe in it.
I will not say anything negative about the president of the United States. I don't do that. And I don't allow my children to do that.
That never stops. That's what drives you: the joy and excitement of doing what you love.
I never stop working.
I think the movie industry has to pay attention that we need to make good quality films, or we are never going to get the business back.
I make sure that I take good care of me.
Interviews are vital, but you cannot allow an interviewer to take your life and disturb it.
The connection between pathos and broad comedy is very tight. But you do far more work in a comedy scene than you do in a straight scene. It's much harder.
I almost get annoyed at the fact that I'm not going to use all that I got.
I've never been more than 9 years old.
When I was young, I wasn't disciplined at all.
I would not want to do one-episode television - that's just a brief encounter with your audience. The arc takes the actor into an arena where he can really stretch.
Red is uplifting.
What happens at 90 is that I don't walk so good, my eyes are going, I can't hear well, and I'm getting all of the 90s residuals.
Commercial television has underestimated the intelligence of the public.
You see, the people that have a point of view and have an opinion and have some intellect are dangerous in the film community - they're dangerous.
Nothing can stop anyone who has a love and passion about their work.
I'm really, basically, nine, and I've always been that. I've never, ever allowed the child within me to die.
My ego and my vanities have nothing to do with comedy.
You think about getting old, but when you get there, it's not what you thought it would be.
Love is what makes you dream, and love is what makes you want to get up in the morning. Love is something that you want to be a part of because it makes you better.
Being 90 is not simple, but it's interesting, very interesting. Before I was 90, I could walk, I could see well, I could hear terrific, and now, I can't hear or see or walk.
You can't be faulted for being selfish if you're going to get better because of it.
I can't stand to ask anyone, 'How was that?'
To ask a pratfall comedian, a dishes-in-the-face comic like me, to lay back and bring none of that stuff to the script because it doesn't call for it? That's tough.
I dream in color.
Going unnoticed has never been my strong suit.
The greatest thing I can remember in my whole career was the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey clowns asking me to appear with them at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1965.
I don't ordinarily do television because I don't like some of the things projected on it.
Most people are embarrassed to admit there's another human being that's in control of them, that your heart beats three times as fast because you've given yourself to someone else.
A wonderful thing happens over time. You fall in love with the sound of your own voice.
I have always said that I cannot allow the child within me to die. It's kept me alive.
You want to know why Barbra Streisand is so difficult? Because she's brilliant. She's a brilliant entertainer, she's a brilliant lady, and she's a wonderful human being, and the community doesn't like it.
Most performers are used to the highs and the lows. If you can let a low stop you, that would be a sad commentary.
The beauty of love, as far as I'm concerned, is it makes you better. It makes you stronger. It gives you direction. It gives you understanding of what life is and what we've been given.
