I worked for 10 years before ‘Mad Men,’ and what was great is that when people saw my work, I was just loving working, so it wasn’t about anything else than that.
I think cable TV in the United States is amazing right now. It’s reinvented television, really. What’s going on in the States with some of these cable shows like ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Mad Men’ is amazing stuff.
I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time. There’s an insanity that goes with writing – a mad scientist thing that you have to go through – and sacrificing a kid’s upbringing to do that is not an option.
Ronald Reagan was so self-contained and impenetrable that his official biographer was practically driven mad trying to figure him out.
People do get mad at me for falling asleep sometimes, and it’s the most frustrating thing. I can’t help it. What am I gonna do?
Be happy. God gave you a breath to breathe every day. You don’t need to be mad about nothin’.
Graffiti writers were the most interesting people in hip hop. They were the mad scientists, the mad geniuses, the weird ones.
Frankly, as much as I love to improvise, it hasn’t been difficult to stick to the script on ‘Mad Men.’ The writing is so precise, and the story so carefully crafted, that I don’t think there’s room – or need – for ad libbing. I could never come up with dialogue as lovely as these writers do, anyway.
The fact is I like Mumbai less and less. My son says, ‘Baba, let’s go for a drive’, and I tell him, ‘Where’s the fun of a drive in this place?’ You get caught in a million traffic jams, and you spend time cooped in your car with all that mad cacophony around you.
I looked up affirmative action once in Wikipedia, and it said, ‘A measure by which white men are discriminated against,’ and I got so mad.
I’d rather have ten people who are mad for it than ten thousand who aren’t.
I don’t get mad too much.
Everyone has a mad half-hour once a month.
I once attended an advertising conference held at the Greenbrier Hotel in 1968. The dean of the original Mad Men, the great David Ogilvy, was the keynote speaker. The subject of his speech was the new creative revolution in advertising.
I’m a big fan of ‘Mad Men.’
I just want to be healthy and happy. I don’t want to hurt anybody or make them mad. If that’s a philosophy then that’s my philosophy.
Tim Robbins had real confidence in college. He literally stole actors from the theater department at UCLA to be in his plays. The department heads got so mad at him.
We’re really spoiled on ‘Mad Men.’ Lots of television actors use the down season to go out and get creatively fulfilled, but I feel the opposite. Anything else I get to do is just icing.
I’m a perfectionist, so I can drive myself mad – and other people, too. At the same time, I think that’s one of the reasons I’m successful. Because I really care about what I do.
Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I’ll do some great, awful painting about her.
Get mad, then get over it.
People get recruited from sketch groups and put on ‘Mad TV’ and ‘SNL,’ but those aren’t ensembles, they’re all-star teams.
I get a little heated when I talk about the past. But I wanted to be clear – I’m not mad at anybody – not anymore.
I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand why some Christians get mad when we say that the ultimate hero in the Bible is not Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, etc… but Jesus.
I don’t know if I ever really get mad in real life.
I used to love martial arts movies starring Bruce Lee and Jean Claude Van Damme. In one of Van Damme’s movies, he would break a pine tree. I would kick banana trees because I used to live on a farm. My father would get mad at me because I would break all of the banana trees around.
What I tell young couples that are getting married is: you’re going to have quarrels, and on some things, you’re just going to have to agree to disagree. And when you go to bed at night, kiss each other and tell each other that you love each other. Don’t go to bed mad. Life is too short. Keep it simple.
None of my kids want to be actors. They are actually very interested in being musicians. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. Pax loves music and deejaying.
I know if I react, and I want to get mad, and emotions come to the surface, I think quickly of my friends who have died and how they overcame their struggle and used their cancer and their lives for the betterment of mankind, and it sets me back in place.
Theater is consistent. You ride your bike to work. You get most of the day off so you can see your kids. My problem is that after three months, I go mad. One of the reasons I never thought I could do a TV show is that I hate doing the same thing over and over again.
Why do we get so angry at ourselves when we eat foods we love? Do you think guys walk around going, ‘I just ate a cheeseburger and I’m so mad at myself?’
The release of ‘Lungs’ was so hard. It was terrifying, because it was the first time doing everything. The first experiences of media exposure were almost paralysing. I spent a lot of time crying on the floor of the studio – it sent me a bit mad.
But in terms of satire and comedy, our biggest and earliest influence was Mad magazine.
The satiric ethos of Mad was a much bigger childhood influence.
In Henry Adams, I discovered not only the prototype of the modern thinker but also someone who is more interesting: a viper-toothed, puling, supercilious crank, thwarted in ambition, aging gracelessly, mad at the cosmos, and ashamed of his own jejune ideals. He is nevertheless very dear to me.
I get very caught up with things. I used to be dominated by domestic things. I had a lovely house in LA-and it became this growing, mad obsession.
All the lessons of history in four sentences: Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small. The bee fertilizes the flower it robs. When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
When you do ‘Mad Fat Diary’ or ‘The Village,’ you always learn about the particular time period, and that’s always nice for an actor.
I used to bottle up all of my emotions and never say anything. Even if something really made me mad, I’d be quiet.
I’m big-busted… I can’t always wear the cutest bras, and it makes me so mad.
I was mad until I was about 25. Completely out of control with my emotions. Everything that happened to me was a tragedy. I’ve been much happier over 25.
You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.
The idea of what’s acceptable and what’s shocking, that’s where I investigate. I mean, you can’t be on ‘Top Gear,’ where your only argument is that it’s all just a joke and anyone who takes offence is an example of political correctness gone mad, and then not accept the counterbalance to that.
You know, ‘Mad Max’ and ‘The Road Warrior’ was part of my childhood, and that’s why I’m so close to it. I remember seeing those movies at a drive-in theater with my parents when I was very young.
Airports drive me mad. I don’t mind the flying; it’s all the hassle before you get on the plane and afterwards, including walking five miles through corridors to the point where you queue for ages to check passports and hope your luggage has arrived safely.
The Pop art I wound up doing came to me purely from ‘Mad’ comics. I loved the idea of doing fun stuff. I met an art dealer who wanted to show the work – that was in January 1962 – and that was the beginning for me.
Exercise is like an old friend: You may not be able to see that friend all the time, but you’re not mad when you see them, you’re happy, and you get right back into it.
People have always heard voices. Sometimes they’re called shamans, sometimes they’re called mad, and sometimes they’re called fiction writers. I always feel lucky that I live in a culture where fiction writing is legal and not seen as pathology.
What happens on ‘Mad Men’ in terms of the acting and the writing and the directing, it’s superior. And yes, it has tremendous cache and buzz because it’s become iconic, but it also deserves all the kudos and the awards as well, because it’s a beautiful show to look at.
One of the things that you have trouble with politicians, particularly in Washington, is when you get mad at them and you can’t touch them; you can’t punch them; you can’t yell at them.
If you’re going to play the bargaining game, you just need to make the other side mad. You want them to get a little annoyed. Then you know that you’ve come in with a good price.
Though I had success in my research both when I was mad and when I was not, eventually I felt that my work would be better respected if I thought and acted like a ‘normal’ person.
And, of course, all of my friends and family are so excited because they feel like Montreal is being represented on Mad Men.
Hollywood has realised that we do have actors and are not just mad about song and dance.
