Top 25 Michael McKean Quotes

I’m kind of the town pump. I think I have a pretty good ear for what sounds good in this style.

They were kind of like little Stephen King stories… but these go back many hundreds of years.

I pray to the shrine of ‘Mr. Show.’ It saved sketch comedy.

That’s a job that it makes a few friendships, but it probably breaks more.

I’m not a big oyster eater. But I know people who will sit at a raw bar and eat oyster for two hours.

I think ‘The X-Files’ was a very important moment in TV history.

There’s more than one way to do TV just like there’s more than one way to do widescreen movies.

I don’t eat steak often, maybe once a month. But when I do, it really hits the spot. When you’re done with your steak and your mashed potatoes and your green beans, you really know you’ve had dinner.

I think you have everyone kind of pulling on the same end of the rope. It’s not like you’re Robin Williams and everyone else is a deaf mute. It’s like – there’s plenty of help.

People seem to think if you’re successful, then you have some secret. The fact is, you’ve just managed to work your life a certain way.

It’s nice to take the gloves off, to really examine your character’s desires and goals.

I’m not a lawyer, thank God. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. I’ve never had the brain power for it. I was not the kind of guy who could learn case law.

After I left ‘Laverne & Shirley,’ I got a ton of offers to play the goofy guy next door, and there were a couple of series that I was offered that turned out to be successful series, but it was too close to what I’d done on my series, and I was really glad I didn’t take it.

I’m not really a gourmet. I like to try new things.

I made some friends who are still friends, and this is the city of my birth. I love living here when there’s a reason to, other than just moving here. I still don’t like the winters here, but it’s an amazing city and I love it.

You know, I think it’s one of those cases where the situation really does dictate your level of ridicule.

I try and find a way to love every character I play.

I was working with Bryan Cranston in ‘All the Way.’ We were about to make an entrance together – I was Hoover, he was LBJ – and he says to me, ‘You should play the brother in ‘Better Call Saul.’ I was like ‘What?’ and it was time to go on. I’m doing the scene, and I can’t think of what Hoover’s supposed to say.

‘Clue’ was a big flop when it came out, but it became a… It’s a movie that almost everyone references with me, now, when I run into people.

Some people stay in the academic world just to avoid becoming self-aware. You can quote me on that.

I can have a real long day; I can have a 14-hour day of intense work and then get home, and it’s just me and TCM on into the night.

Sometimes we drop in and do an acoustic set somewhere, and that’s really fun to take all these insanely loud songs, and to do them quiet. It’s really a sight to see… or to hear!

David Lander and I met in September of 1965. We were both students at Carnegie Tech, as it was then known. Before the Mellon money came in.

I think a villain who starts his morning looking in the mirror, wringing his hands, and going, ‘How can I be evil today?’ is not an interesting villain. An interesting villain is a person who you understand on some level, I think.

I have never had a plan. Things happen to me, and, of course, I make friends who later say, ‘Hey, you know who would be good for this? McKean would be good for this.’ And they hire me, and if they like me, they hire me again, or the word gets out.