Quote

Films are big hits when they touch a lot of people. Things are not funny in a vacuum, they're funny because we respond to some personal dislocation, some embarrassment, some humiliation, some pain we've suffered, or some desire we have.

Harold Ramis

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Harold Ramis
Age: 69 †
Born: 1944
Born: November 21
Died: 2014
Died: February 24
Actor
Comedian
Director
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Actor
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Harold Allen Ramis
People
Films
Vacuums
Personal
Vacuum
Funny
Embarrassment
Bigs
Humiliation
Pain
Hits
Desire
Suffered
Film
Respond
Things
Touch
Dislocation

More quotes by Harold Ramis

Image
Life doesn't care about your vision. You just gotta roll with it.
Harold Ramis
Image
Billy Crystal knows how to make people laugh. He's got 30 years on stage... there's no telling him what's funny.
Harold Ramis
Image
It doesn't take any longer to improvise 10 takes than it takes to shoot 10 takes of the same thing. It turns out to be just as responsible from a business point of view as anything else.
Harold Ramis
Image
I've never taken a script to the stage or to principal photography and said, This is perfect. This is as good as it can possibly be. It's not Shakespeare, you know you know it can probably be better.
Harold Ramis
Image
For me, most comedy scripts fail in the mechanical playing-out of the setup. They'll pay lip service to a moral lesson or a psychological progression.
Harold Ramis
Image
Life has all of these contradictory feelings and contradictory results. People spend their whole lives struggling to get what they think they want, and even if they get it, they find that it's either not what they wanted, or it comes with so many unwanted consequences. We're always shut off from pure joy.
Harold Ramis
Image
You can't love somebody into a state of mental health.
Harold Ramis
Image
When a director writes, there's a compulsory arbitration. You have a right to challenge any of the arbitrators, but they pick three of four arbitrators who read all the drafts with no names attached and then allocate credit.
Harold Ramis
Image
If Chevy Chase had not been an actor, he might have been a very popular guy in advertising or whatever field he would have gone into, because of his charisma.
Harold Ramis
Image
I loved writing and performing, but the idea of doing it for a living seemed so remote. But I eventually let it devolve to the point where it was the only thing I could do.
Harold Ramis
Image
Whenever a critic mentions the salary of an actor, I'm thinking, He's not talking about the movie.
Harold Ramis
Image
I'm not a believer in the pratfall. I don't think it's funny just to have someone fall down.
Harold Ramis
Image
No matter what I have to say, I'm still trying to say it in comedic form.
Harold Ramis
Image
When I've written for Bill Murray - I've written six films for him - people would read it and say, Oh, that's so perfectly Bill. He'd read it and say, Are you kidding? I can't say these words. So it's all about perception.
Harold Ramis
Image
I used to be married to a woman who pursued every spiritual trend with tremendous passion and dragged me along. I don't believe in anything. I'd seen mediums and readers.
Harold Ramis
Image
I'm thinking of doing a marital comedy for one of the studios, but I want it to be so painful that it'll have a profound effect on married couples who see it together.
Harold Ramis
Image
I never read Playboy before I started working there and stopped reading it the day I quit.
Harold Ramis
Image
First and foremost, you have to make the movie for yourself. And that's not to say, to hell with everyone else, but what else have you got to go on but your own taste and judgment?
Harold Ramis
Image
Where's the great pay? Where's the travel? Where's the Winnebago, Goddamnit!
Harold Ramis
Image
I'd rather do comedies that strike at some bigger ideas.
Harold Ramis