I’ve always hated the term ‘alternative’; I only use it because when I say it, people know what I’m talking about. I always thought it was weird when guys like myself or Patton Oswalt or Dana Gould, these older guys, were called ‘alternative’ comedy.
The idea of ‘talking white,’ a lot of people grew up around that, just the idea that if you speak with proper diction and come off as educated that it’s not black and that it’s actually anti-black and should be considered only something that white people would do.
When we were talking about this, an idea for this master vigilante, it was an urban guerilla. One of my ideas was that he would be a member of the police force who turned on the government.
I like playing guitar I don’t like talking about it. I like writing riffs, I don’t like explaining them.
If I were to name my favorite pastime, I’d have to say talking about myself. I love it and I think most other people do too. We need, people like us, more listeners and less talkers.
Time is the most valuable thing you have – and I’m not just talking about the minutes for which you’re paid.
Anytime we’re talking about Thurgood Marshall, that’s a good thing, I think, because it gives us an opportunity to go back, look at the history, and recognize what his contributions were.
With the advent of cell phones, especially with the very small microphone that attach to the cell phone itself, it’s getting harder and harder I find, to differentiate between schizophrenics and people talking on a cell phone.
I believe man is stripped naked when he’s in conversation with God. Your deepest fears, strongest desires, highest hopes – they’re all there when you are talking to God.
Concrete you can mold, you can press it into – after all, you haven’t any straight lines in your body. Why should we have straight lines in our architecture? You’d be surprised when you go into a room that has no straight line – how marvelous it is that you can feel the walls talking back to you, as it were.
I used to watch old clips of Muhammad Ali, where he’d be talking the jive during interviews, you know, ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, rumble, man, rumble.’
When you play defense what happens is everybody pays attention and they start talking about how you’re the stopper, you can stop this guy. All of a sudden your game gets better on the offensive end and you become that versatile guard that everybody wants.
I’m not really good at talking.
Some people keep God in a Sunday morning box and say, ‘Hey, I did my religious duty.’ That’s fine, but the scripture says to pray without ceasing. And I think that means all through the day you’re talking to God. Even if it’s in your thoughts.
You don’t really get Jesus saying very often there’ll be pie in the sky when you die. He’s really talking about now and today, and it’s supposed to be like that. You’re supposed to delight in what’s right in front of you.
Racism is a disease. Go to your doctor with an ailment, and let the doctor tell you, ‘Well, look, I’m not going to treat you; we’re just not going to talk about it. It’s going to go away.’ You would look at him like he’s crazy. By not talking about racism, it’s not going to go away.
I think sometimes what happens is that all of this feeling out of control manifests itself in trying to control your body; whether it’s an eating disorder or talking about getting your nose fixed, as if that’s going to be the solution to all the pressure.
I love everything about food; if you took it away you would be depriving me of one of my greatest pleasures. I love the whole process of it – buying it, cooking it, eating it, talking about it, talking over it.
I don’t have a specific plan except for as long as people want to listen to me talk, I’m going to keep talking. I can’t imagine a life without doing standup.
I don’t think it’s too late for ‘The War of the Worlds’ to come true. I’m talking about it from the standpoint that which you need to have and own things – to breed, to think, to create – is going on everywhere, not just on this planet or in the space around it.
I love talking to the audience, and I must be the luckiest performer in the world. I always land something or somebody that just takes off.
It gets a bit boring talking about the same thing for a hundred years.
I would say things like ‘I am the greatest! I’m pretty! If you talk jive, you’ll drop in five! I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! I’m pretty!’ When white people heard me talking like this, some said, ‘That black man talks too much. He’s bragging.’
When you’re on set, you’re constantly surrounded by people – talking to people, being touched by people. So I like to just spend time with myself.
People spend a lot of time talking and thinking about how members of the opposite sex look, but very little time paying attention to how they sound. To our unconscious minds, however, voice is very important.
I believe in diplomacy; I don’t believe in talking to… that talking to Iran somehow constitutes a concession or a favour.
Listening is more important than talking. Just hit your mark and believe what you say. Just listen to people and react to what they are saying.
The first time I was on ‘Johnny Carson,’ I remember being so scared, but the minute he started talking to me, I felt a little more comfortable because I just knew he was going to take care of me. Hopefully, I have learned something from watching him for so many years that I can offer that to a guest.
The follow your dreams thing is really important because so many people are railroaded into taking other paths by their family, their friends, people who should be supportive going, ‘What are you talking about?’ Even just seemingly regular career paths, but if it’s not what people expect for you they kind of react funny.
It’s no use of talking unless people understand what you say.
I was really good at being a bad guy; I like that role. Not being bad to people – just talking bad.
When we are trying to come up with new health laws, you bring doctors, you bring experts in medicine. In urban planning, you bring the best architects. How it is possible that when we are talking about the way we are going to feed America, no chef shows up in the room?
There is no Dubai and Abu Dhabi; we are one. Whoever doesn’t understand this should do their homework before they start talking. We will be there for each other when we need it.
Always write as if you are talking to someone. It works. Don’t put on any fancy phrases or accents or things you wouldn’t say in real life.
It doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says. I’m always having fun, talking to other guys. They even come to first base and ask me about hitting. I try to help them out as much as I can in the 30 seconds before the pitcher throws the next pitch. That’s me. I don’t think I will ever change that.
When Andrew went with the girls, we were talking all morning and he was saying, ‘It’s okay. Just remember we had such a good day. Our wedding was so perfect.’ Because we’re such a unit together. He made me feel very part of the day on April the 29th.
I never heard Jack Nicklaus say, ‘I’m a great player,’ or Tiger Woods, as a matter of fact. They just get out and do it. And I think that’s far more appealing… than talking about how good you are.
I’ve often sat down with people talking about a film I’ve been in, and they haven’t realised I was in it.
It’s amazing how the biggest things in our lives – when we’re around the fireplace and talking about them when we’re older – the things that matter the most to us start off amazingly small and in a humble way.
It’s a weird thing. Rick Springfield wrote ‘Jessie’s Girl,’ and he probably gets sick of talking about ‘Jessie’s Girl.’ The thing is, I didn’t write ‘Blurred Lines.’ I didn’t direct the music video. I’m really happy for the success, but it is kind of a funny thing to follow me around.
Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962, he was an angry, relatively young man. He founded the ANC’s military wing. When he was released, he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge.
It’s hard to mix with a crowd when you’re walking down the hallway and everybody else is a foot shorter. I remember hanging out with my friends, like at the mall, and thinking people were staring at me and talking about me. It made me turn inside myself. I became more shy and quiet.
There is a difficult leap between talking about balancing the budget and actually doing it.
I’m not interested in playing the girl that’s just there to make the guy, you know, give him a talking to.
When Mrs. Bush was First Lady, she went all over the Mideast talking about breast cancer awareness and the need for early screening. She did this in places where the cultures prohibit such discussion or even detection efforts.
To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.
I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.
Biochemistry is the science of life. All our life processes – walking, talking, moving, feeding – are essentially chemical reactions. So biochemistry is actually the chemistry of life, and it’s supremely interesting.
I could talk all day, T stands for talking, T stands for tender, T stands for things that don’t even rhyme with T.
