Quotes By Mel Brooks

Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.

Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said.

A cinema villain essentially needs a moustache so he can twiddle with it gleefully as he cooks up his next nasty plan.

Well, just being stupid and politically incorrect doesn't work. You can be politically incorrect if you're smart.

We rest our case on the production numbers.

I was in the army, and to me it was like a newsreel.

I don't believe in this business of being behind, better to be in front.

If presidents can't do it to their wives, they do it to their country.

Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance.

These men both publicly and privately have done so much for me. Without Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick I would be living in a little motel just around the corner here, trying to make ends meet.

As far as songwriters, I've always been a fan of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin; those guys mean a lot to me.

My job is to go out and entertain the most people possible.

'Mad About You' was very fun.

Humor is just another defense against the universe.

Anybody can direct, but there are only eleven good writers.

Well, you know, 'Spaceballs' is a weird combination, because it's a simple, sweet little fairytale, and it's crazy and out-there and making fun of and taking apart sci-fi, 'Star Wars', and 'Star Trek'.

It's talent. Either you got it or you ain't.

I like Chris Rock. He's dangerous.

A lot of music is mathematics. It's balance.

Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love.

If Shaw and Einstein couldn't beat death, what chance have I got? Practically none.

As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes.

I don't have a mission. I don't have a torch to burn.

When you come to Germany as a Jew you have an uneasy feeling, but I've always felt okay in Berlin.

I know how to make it a great musical. I've got to. It's like I've got to see it on stage.

Judd Apatow is pretty good, both as a producer and as a director.

Look, I don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you're not alive.

I love writing songs. I'm a songwriter.

If you stand on a soapbox and trade rhetoric with a dictator you never win.

I'll accept bad taste in a minute, as long as there's some great comedy minds and performances.