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When I was growing up, we learned our history almost as lives of the saints. And it came as a shock, Oh, Jefferson had slaves? It always comes as a shock to us that elevation to the White House didn't somehow cleanse them of all their deep character flaws.

Harry Shearer

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Harry Shearer
Age: 80
Born: 1943
Born: December 23
Actor
Dub Actor
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Journalist
Musician
Radio Personality
Screenwriter
Television Actor
Voice Actor
LA
California
Harry Julius Shearer
Character
Almost
Flaws
Always
Came
Shock
White
Saint
Lives
Somehow
Cleanse
History
Slave
Jefferson
Comes
Deep
Elevation
House
Learned
Saints
Didn
Growing
Slaves

More quotes by Harry Shearer

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I am one of those people who thrive on deadlines. Nothing brings on inspiration more readily than desperation.
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Music can happen with equal ease as a solo or collaborative venture, it seems to me.
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For a guy who is always banging on about the masculine virtues, Nixon had this remarkable proclivity for very dainty gestures.
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I was never into candy and games and clowns.
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I would come back to public school for usually about half the year. It was actually better for me to be out of school a lot, because I was two years younger than everybody, which is a bad situation, socially.
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You have to do real acting, not just do a voice.
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I always used to sit next to Mel Blanc when we'd do the shows. When you have Jack Benny on one side and Mel Blanc on the other, you're not going to go far wrong.
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I wasn't playing Nixon's satirical stick figure. I was playing Nixon the man. As an actor, I felt I had to get to the deeply flawed humanity of the guy.
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You know, radio was a really easy way to do the shows. You'd come in, do a read-through, there'd be a few rehearsals, then you'd come the night of the show and do it in front of the audience and then go home.
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I have a very strong visual memory of the first time I made him laugh. That was remarkable. I was like, Oh, God, I just made Jack Benny laugh.
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I didn't have a lot of independent film connections. It really took until the digital film revolution came along that I realized that I could do it myself.
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The first thing you've got to do is know your craft, and then you can do something else with it.
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I've got an odd, negative bond with C. Montgomery Burns. He reminds a lot of people of bosses they've worked for. He certainly reminds me of someone I'm working for.
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I think in most cases, if you're with good people, comedy creation happens faster in collaboration. That's how I can tell if it's a good collaboration: If it's faster than me by myself, then it works. If it's slower than me by myself, then I get out of the room.
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Nobody makes a movie thinking it's still going to be watched and talked about and quoted 20 years later.
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To do then now would be retro. To do then then was very now-tro, if you will.
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I'd always loved radio. I loved Bob And Ray. I loved Stan Freberg.
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Here's a guy [Richard Nixon] who had no gift for small talk, never liked to be around strangers, was physically awkward, and he goes into the one business that calls for ease with strangers and a gift for small talk.
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If you're going to do something that lasts 90 minutes, you can't really do it with stick figures.
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As a kid, I really did want to hang out with the grownups, so it was hanging out with the hippest grownups in the world. This was the nicest bunch of people I've worked with in show business, with the exception of the people around 'A Mighty Wind.' It really was a wonderful eight years.
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