Quotes

Success didn't change me. I was already distorted before I became a star.

[1970] The Oscars are some sort of masturbatory fantasy. People think: an Academy Award -- now if I get a parking ticket I don't have to pay it. I don't put the Award down. But, at my sanest, I would rather have a good three-man basketball game than sit here in my monkey suit.

I had come across a paperweight that had a quotation in it, that the greatest artist in the world is an uninhibited child at play. I subscribe to that, and then I mentioned it to a late, wonderful friend, Herb Gardner, who wrote "A Thousand Clowns," and his wife, and they said to me, "And Picasso." And I said: "You keep Picasso, and I'll keep the child. Because as far as I'm concerned, without the spirit of the child, I'm not interested." To save the day, I discovered that the quotation was made by Pablo Picasso.

My only enemy is me.

(2013, on working with the Ocean's Eleven cast) It was great. George Clooney is a fabulous guy. He's very generous, lots of fun, very intelligent. And he set the tone. Brad Pitt was a terrific guy, and I became friendly with Matt Damon and... well, everyone, really. But I really picked up on Casey Affleck during the film. I called him "Maestro." He bit his nails lower than I ever bit mine... and I used to bite mine to the quick! Originally, Alan Arkin was going to be playing the part that Carl Reiner played, but then Alan had some sort of medical situation and couldn't do it, so we got Carl. Bernie Mac was a great guy, and we miss him. It was great working with Steven Soderbergh and Jeffrey Kurland, who did the wardrobe. The choice of wardrobe, even the glasses, that was Jeffrey Kurland.

I mentioned that I'm friendly with Casey, but I'd never really talked with Ben, so I decided to go to a gathering recently that George Clooney was having, a party for the cast of Argo. When I told Ben that I was there because I wanted to say hello and let him know how impressed I am with his craft, I think he was pleased, but then he asked me a question, which I thought was really great. He said, "Have you ever done anything in all of this that you were sorry you did?" And I took a moment, and I said, "No, because there's so many people dependent on our work for their living or their livelihood. You do something whether it works or whether it doesn't. Once you're committed and you do it, it becomes a part of your life. I wouldn't be sorry about it. I'd learn from it." So I felt that I was able to impart at least a little bit of wisdom to him.

(2013, on landing Friends) They'd done a pilot, they'd been picked up by NBC, and I knew they were going to be on around Mad About You and Seinfeld, but they were not yet in production. They sent me a script, and... there wasn't much in it, but they wanted me to play the father of David Schwimmer and Courteney Cox. I didn't know if I'd do it. There wasn't much money in it for me, so I didn't think I would do it, and my agents didn't want me to do it at the time, either. But then I saw on the script that it was to be directed by Jim Burrows. I'd worked for Jim's father, Abe, who directed Say, Darling, where I was third assistant stage manager and I was a chorus boy, just a little part. But that was one reason why I wanted to work with Jim Burrows. That, and to see how he did it, because he was so successful. So I wound up doing it, and we got along great. And all the Friends were very nice to me, too.