Albert Brooks

How many people didn't get a part who would have been better than the person who got the part? Thousands. ”

When I audition, I understand what it takes and the insecurities that come with it. If I do anything, I put actors at ease. I used to tell directors who weren't actors, the best thing they could do was take an acting class for a couple of months. Just to understand. ”

It's interesting when you're part of a group - the Jews, to be exact - that the world has had such problems with. ”

It's better to be known by six people for something you're proud of than by 60 million for something you're not. ”

There are a few giant companies that I love, and I love Amazon. Their customer service is impeccable: sometimes, just for the hell of it, I'll sleep on a mattress for three years and return it. ”

If people don't love what you're doing, that doesn't mean you're wrong. ”

I had a very wise person tell me that he thinks marriage, when you're younger, you keep thinking you can fix things. That's what people do. And you can't really fix anything. It shouldn't be a massive difficult thing every day. Life's difficult enough. ”

I don't see many explosions or ten-car crashes in the course of my life, so I don't put them into my movies. I would love to live in a society where 'My Dinner with Andre' made $100,000,000. Then I would be in the mainstream. I could do that stuff easier than I could do 'Meatballs.' ”

I don't know how, where, and why the idea for 'Defending Your Life' began; the idea had been bouncing around for a while. Stories like that sort of have to bounce. They don't come out of nowhere. I went through my own period of life with sort of everything turning upside down, and wondering, 'Why is it this way?' ”

The people on this planet that are trying to live their life, that aren't trying to destroy things, are in the 99.9-percent majority. ”