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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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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.
Harry Shearer
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Well Washington DC what are you going to do. They think the capitol steps are the state of the art in comedy. You try to drag them into the 20th century let alone the 21st and they refuse to come with you.
Harry Shearer
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You have to do real acting, not just do a voice.
Harry Shearer
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The act of getting married, stripped of the necessity to have a secure setting to raise children, seems to me no less grim than registering your emotions with the government.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer
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I went to graduate school at Harvard for one year I worked in the state legislature in Sacramento for one year. I taught school in Compton for two years.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer
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Nobody makes a movie thinking it's still going to be watched and talked about and quoted 20 years later.
Harry Shearer
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Democrats always like to brag that their guys are smarter than the opponents and Republicans always like to brag that their guys are more moral than the opponents. But if you're looking for morals in politics you're looking for bananas in the cheese department.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer
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I was never into candy and games and clowns.
Harry Shearer
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Nixon's genius was that he was able to portray himself as the toughest of the anti-communists, and yet run on a platform that he had a plan to end the Vietnam War. And, of course, his plan was to prolong it until his second election - but he didn't tell us that then.
Harry Shearer
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Music can happen with equal ease as a solo or collaborative venture, it seems to me.
Harry Shearer
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Anybody who says that having the public recognize them and relate to the work they do is irritating should get into another line of work. You're in this business for people to know what you do and like it.
Harry Shearer
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My parents didn't want me to be a regular in a series. I was a working actor from time to time but they thought was a little too much being a star of a series. They wanted me to have a slightly more normal childhood.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer
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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.
Harry Shearer