I joke that my niche in Hollywood has been naked foreigners.
That's a true actor's nightmare: "Improvise in British sign language. Go."
Women are, in general, less shallow visually. If their man gains 10, 20 pounds, they don't care as much. But I've been with women over the years when my weight fluctuated, and they're definitely more interested physically when I am in really great shape.
I was 16 and did a play at school. I was a rather good student... And then I did a play when I was 16 and completely lost all my concentration for academics.
Being funny with a funny voice is more my comfort zone, a broader character that I try to humanize, a kind of silly or wacky persona that I try to fill in.
I guess for me the greatest injustice is to see people robbed of that interiority and process of association.
I just really committed to trying to never repeat myself. I'd seen actors do that on films, and I was, like, "I wanna try that once!" Ultimately, I'm much more in the school of getting one or two versions that feel right, as opposed to going all over the map. But it's fun to exercise that once in awhile.
In gay culture hookups are a way of escaping your class.
Guys will definitely settle for women who get the joke. But a woman who can make you laugh? It's not high on a guy's must list. Perhaps it should be.
I've done literally 100, 150 different characters.
It's always impressive when talented comedians are easy laughers or generous with their laughs.
When you do well in a movie that's seen as really great, you're revitalized for six weeks.
When you're on a series that's been cancelled, there's a little bit of a stink on you.
I've been divorced and I had to get back out there be single again and do some of that in the genuinely miserable state where you really do wonder what the hell is going on. And you feel like trying to have casual conversation with someone you don't know on the surface of the moon or something.
I bartended for a catering company for two or three years...
You can't be funny for funny's sake. You try to get as outrageous situation as you can but it always has to be believable and based in real character motivations and what people would really do.
I've met a lot of rock stars when they come to The Simpsons, and almost every one of them I get really freaked out.
I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself. I felt like I shouldn't have to audition for anything and all that. And that energy did not serve me at all.
There's no experience like on-the-job training.
When you become deeply involved with someone, their problems become yours, and vice versa. It's family.
Just watching Jack Lemmon made me want to get into this business.
A lot of times, when I record with a group, I'll stay after class for another hour or two and go, 'Let me try a bunch of things I was thinking of, as you were doing that.'
I would love to do Broadway again.
As an actress, you're living something through the duration of the play and its geography. I've always seen writing the same way. It's like somehow I'm moving through the terrain of the book as a performer.
Even trying it as an actor, I never thought I'd actually make it.
I've always been a fan of plain writing. I hate metaphor-laden, heavily larded, lyrical writing.
Literally, I see my writing as transcription - a transcription of what I see, hear, think, live.
I think the reason the Golden Age of television is so golden is because a lot of folks are willing to let creators do their thing and live or die by their own muse. They certainly allow us to do that.
Historically, there would always be people among the general population who had family members, friends, cousins who'd done time or who'd been in prison.
A self-help book can't really address a problem unless it's individualized. It's not going to talk about a globalized problem.
In my cranky old age, I actually prefer recording alone now, on 'The Simpsons,' for example, because I find that the director can just focus on what I'm doing and I can do a lot of variations. A lot of times, when I record with a group, I'll stay after class for another hour or two.
I wore a thong and a bra and a wig. Those things hurt. I mean, thongs? Like, they dig in. It takes a tough man to be a woman.
I tend to not watch things that are current. And then if everybody swears it's amazing then I'll like watch the whole series in a weekend.
I was hedging my bets by the time I got to college. I was interested in drama and journalism and psychology.
I guess I'm used to seeing actors, but rock musicians still hold a special magic for me.
I don't really remember much about the '60s at all. You know, 1970 is the first year I remember pretty well.
I say with pride that I've done over a hundred voices or something, and some of them may have only had two or three lines, but I literally never ran out. I think I'm a bit of a savant that way. I kind of remember every voice I hear, famous or otherwise, and can imitate it pretty fast. I've enjoyed mimicking people famous and not famous all through my life, and they kind of remain in the memory banks, so I'm ready to trot them out.
It's not really difficult to go from one voice into the next.
I did a lot of theater in college, and I knew that not many people make it, but I just figured, 'Well, I really want to try acting while I'm young, and I don't ever want to look back and say that I never gave it a try.' I fully figured I'd be back in grad school - probably for psychology.
I love acting, but I want to explore other things.
Politics is topical - it's what's happening now, and we can either respond in the present or avoid it.
You have to always physicalize, when you do animation recording. Otherwise, you won't get the performance right.
It's not really difficult to go from one voice into the next. It's like asking you to sing a line of Happy Birthday and then Goodnight Irene - assuming you know the words to both those songs
Women are, in general, less shallow visually. If their man gains 10, 20 pounds, they don't care as much.
Godzilla's a monster for the '90s. He's been working out.
You never know who's going to kill you until you meet them.
The craft Emmys are kind of the kids table at Thanksgiving. You're not really invited to the big dance. It's still really, really exciting, and the statue still counts.
Association bring you into the larger world of other people and things. Not having that is a kind of prison, a prison of such a limited consciousness, of such a limited frame of reference and association.
Getting over someone is a grieving process. You mourn the loss of the relationship, and that's only expedited by 'Out of sight, out of mind.' But when you walk outside and see them on a billboard or on TV or on the cover of a magazine, it reopens the wound. It's a high-class problem, but it's real.
I've done literally 100, 150 different characters. Some of them have only appeared for a line or three. But the point is, every sound I can make has been harvested.
[Kids] are just like annoying short people
Once someone is in your family orbit, there's a mutual responsibility, and whatever happens to them happens to you.
I've been doing silly voices since I was a child.
I'm very happy I get to keep working - it's an insanely fortunate thing.
I ask for a lot of advice from different fathers - all kinds of dads.
I was a huge fan of comedy and movies and TV growing up, and I was able to memorize and mimic a lot of things, not realizing that that meant I probably wanted to be an actor. I just really, really amused myself and my friends with memorizing entire George Carlin or Steve Martin albums.
You know those award shows. The cliche is that it's an honor just to be nominated, but that happens to be true. Whoever wins it in the end, I don't know, sometimes it feels arbitrary. Sometimes it feels like it's deserving.
I had kind of sworn off network TV a while ago.
