Bob Newhart

I just made the decision that I was going to try comedy, and if didn't work, then I knew it didn't work. Then I would go back and do whatever. But at least I wouldn't torture myself the rest of my life, wondering whatever would have happened. ”

If 'The New York Times' says it, it must be true. ”

I would say I came from upper middle class family. ”

When I started, I was doing all the good comedians I'd ever seen. Then I developed my own voice. My routines are my natural way of looking at the world. ”

For some reason, comedians are still children. The social skills somehow never reach us, so we say exactly what we think without weighing the results. ”

With the stand-up comic on TV, whether it's Seinfeld or Cosby or Roseanne, more important than their knowledge of how to tell a joke is their knowledge of themselves, or the persona they've created as themselves. So that when you're in a room with writers, you can say, 'Guys, that's a funny line, but I wouldn't say it.' ”

I'm not a classically trained actor. I'm not a product of Stavlovski method or anything like that. ”

I'm not what you'd call a Method actor. ”

I have an aversion to laugh tracks - the moment I hear a laugh track, I go to another channel. ”

When I first started out, 'Time' magazine did an article on what it called 'the sick comics,' and they were myself, Shelley Berman, Nichols & May, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, and Mort Sahl. We were considered 'sick.' ”