Words matter. These are the best Gene Wilder Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
A lot of comic actors derive their main force from childish behavior. Most great comics are doing such silly things; you’d say, ‘That’s what a child would do.’
Lots of things are hard work, but I think writing, for me, after I started acting at 13 years old. I like writing now much more than I do acting only because, well, partly because the scripts that are offered are junk.
When I was in desperate trouble for maybe eight or nine years, I went to a neuropsychiatrist.
I’ve become pretty philosophical about a lot of things, including death. It doesn’t get to me.
I said something really stupid once. I told a friend that my mother was so beautiful, but my dad was ugly. My dad heard it and just laughed it off, but I felt guilty. It haunted me for years. I should never have said that.
I’m stopped by mothers who say, ‘Mr. Wilder, what advice would you give to my young boy? He’s really talented.’
I’m not from Hollywood, and I’m also not one of the people who wants to do a tell-all, and I hate tell-alls. I didn’t want to tell all.
Actors fall into this trap if they missed being loved for who they really were and not for what they could do – sing, dance, joke about – then they take that as love.
When your mother gives you confidence about anything that you do, you carry that confidence with you.
Success is a terrible thing and a wonderful thing. If you can enjoy it, it’s wonderful. If it starts eating away at you, and they’re waiting for more from me, or what can I do to top this, then you’re in trouble. Just do what you love. That’s all I want to do.
I’m not a natural writer like, let’s say – I’m not talking about Arthur Miller; that’s a whole other thing – but let’s say Woody Allen. But the more I’ve written, the more I’ve found that there is a deep well in me somewhere that wants to express things that I’m not going to find unless I write them myself.
I don’t want to do ‘Hamlet.’ I don’t want to do Robert Redford roles or Mel Gibson roles or Kevin Costner roles, because I’m not going to be good at them.
Mel Brooks is one of the few authentic geniuses working in comedy in America today.
I love the art of acting, and I love film, because you always have another chance if you want it. You know, if we – if this isn’t going well, you can’t say – well, you could say – let’s stop. Let’s start over again, Gene, because you were too nervous.
I’d like to do a comedy with Emma Thompson. I admire her as an actress so much. I love her. And I didn’t know it until recently that her whole career started in comedy.
I wanted to do – there was this film called ‘Magic’ that Anthony Hopkins did. And the director wanted me. The writer wanted me. Joe Levine said no, I don’t want any comedians in this.
When you fall in love, and you’re very young, you think that that’s the love of your life. And maybe it is, but it usually doesn’t turn out that way.
If something comes along that’s really good, and I think I would be good for it, I’d be happy to do it. But not too many came along. I mean, they came along for the first, I don’t know, 15, 18 films, but I didn’t do that many. But then I didn’t want to do the kind of junk I was seeing.
My favorite author is Anton Chekhov, not so much for the plays but for his short stories, and I think he was really my tutor.
I like writing books. I’d rather be at home with my wife. I can write, take a break, come out, have a glass of tea, give my wife a kiss, and go back in and write some more. It’s not so bad. I am really lucky.
What do actors really want? To be great actors? Yes, but you can’t buy talent, so it’s best to leave the word ‘great’ out of it. I think to be believed, onstage or onscreen, is the one hope that all actors share.
I’m funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while.
I trust if your life is right, the right things will happen at the right time. If the chords are in harmony inside, I think other things will happen in the same way. That sounded highfalutin’ to me once, but I believe it now.
So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I’m doing that, then I snap out of it.
I had a unique form: a Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
My mother was suffering every day of her life, and what right did I have to be happy if she was suffering? So whenever I got happy about something, I felt the need to cut it off, and the only way to cut it off was to pray. ‘Forgive me Lord.’ For what, I didn’t know.
I never thought of it as God. I didn’t know what to call it. I don’t believe in devils, but demons I do because everyone at one time or another has some kind of a demon, even if you call it by another name, that drives them.
I love acting, especially if it’s a fantasy of some kind, where it’s not just realistic, it’s not naturalism.
My wife and I water color, paint water colors.
Great art direction is NOT the same thing as great film direction!
I had a daughter and lost her a long while ago. That’s too sad a story to go into.
I live in a small town in Connecticut, and they don’t write scripts there, but I get them anyway because my agent is in Los Angeles.
Sidney Poitier was directing a film called ‘Hanky Panky.’ And he said, ‘Do you want to come with me to New York to see Gilda Radner in ‘Lunch Hour’ on Broadway? I said, ‘I don’t need to see her, I love her. I’ve wanted to write something for her for a long time. So it’s OK by me.’