Quote

I love [Nikolai] Gogol's great eye for idiot behavior. Gogol said that life is so tragic, so stupendously sad that we'd better laugh a lot and enjoy ourselves. You either get a sense of humor going or you go under.

Mel Brooks

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Mel Brooks
Age: 98
Born: 1926
Born: June 28
Actor
Composer
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Journalist
Librettist
Lyricist
Screenwriter
Soldier
Songwriter
Stage Actor
Brooklyn
New York
Melvin Brooks
Melvin Kaminsky
Life
Either
Eye
Gogol
Enjoy
Tragic
Sense
Idiot
Better
Laugh
Great
Behavior
Going
Laughing
Love
Humor

More quotes by Mel Brooks

Image
I'm married to a beautiful and talented woman who can lift your spirits just by looking at you.
Mel Brooks
Image
Judd Apatow is pretty good, both as a producer and as a director.
Mel Brooks
Image
I was out in the combat engineers. We would throw up bridges in advance of the infantry but mainly we would just throw up.
Mel Brooks
Image
My favorite expression is: When you go up to the bell, ring it ? or don't go up to the bell.
Mel Brooks
Image
Being short never bothered me for three seconds. The rest of the time I wanted to commit suicide.
Mel Brooks
Image
My God, I'd love to smash into the casket of Dostoyevsky, grab that bony hand and scream at the remains, 'Well done, you god-damn genius.'
Mel Brooks
Image
I don't think in terms of results at all. I think: what next insanity can I shock the world with?
Mel Brooks
Image
One day, God said 'Let there be prey.' And he created pigeons, rabbits, lambs and Gene Wilder.
Mel Brooks
Image
I usually start with the words. The rhythm of the words gives me the rhythm of the song, and then I look for the musical highlights in it to carry it.
Mel Brooks
Image
I was a soldier in WWII. The last couple of months of the war I was actually in combat.
Mel Brooks
Image
If Ivan the Terrible had been kissed and loved between zero and three, he probably would have become Ivan Not So Terrible. If you're Jewish, you have a small smile on your face. Because you know the rest are wrong and you don't want to hurt their feelings.
Mel Brooks
Image
THE 2,000-YEAR-OLD MAN'S SECRETS OF LONGEVITY 1. Don't run for a bus - there'll always be another. 2. Never, ever touch fried food. 3. Stay out of a Ferrari or any other small Italian car. 4. Eat fruit - a nectarine - even a rotten plum is good.
Mel Brooks
Image
Do you have a dollar on you? I hate to answer questions for nothing.
Mel Brooks
Image
I like people with big talents and small neuroses - not always an easy combination to find. I've discovered that if the neurosis is too big, it diminishes the talent and you wind up working too hard for what you get.
Mel Brooks
Image
My mother is very short - four-eleven. She could walk under tables and never hit her head.
Mel Brooks
Image
Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin.
Mel Brooks
Image
I only direct in self-defense.
Mel Brooks
Image
No creative writer knows what is commercial and what isn't. You just write from your heart, you write from the deepest, creative urges in you, and you write from your soul, and you just either get lucky or not.
Mel Brooks
Image
Being brave is being scared and worried and still doing it [what you do]. Because if you're just a wacko, a mashugana, a crazy guy, then you're not brave, your nuts!
Mel Brooks
Image
As far as songwriters, I've always been a fan of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin those guys mean a lot to me.
Mel Brooks