Gene Wilder

I want to do what I can lend my talents to, but I want it to be as a human being and not as a two-dimensional character.

So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.

A lot of comic actors derive their main force from childish behavior. Most great comics are doing such silly things; you'd say, 'That's what a child would do.

What good is a character who's always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?

I never used to believe in fate. I used to think you make your own life and then you call it fate. That's why I call it irony.

If my mother hadn't laughed at the funny things I did, I probably wouldn't be a comic actor. After she had her first heart attack, the doctor said, 'Try to make her laugh.' And that was the first time I tried to make anyone laugh.

The thing I love about making movies is the peace of mind that I know I don't have to be perfect the first time. I can be perfect the second time or the third time.

When you fall in love, and you're very young, you think that that's the love of your life. And maybe it is, but it usually doesn't turn out that way.

I was a milksop as a kid. I had no confidence, no guts. I felt I was going to be someone else someday - someone who didn't have my weaknesses.

The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last.

I'm in complete remission. I'm alive and well.

The big catalyst was seeing my sister, when I was 11, doing a dramatic recital. When I saw her on the stage and everyone listening to her so patiently, quietly, that's all I wanted: for someone to look at me and listen to me, but in some beautiful and artistic way.

What I learned from Mel Brooks was audacity - in performance as in life. Maybe you go too far, but try it.

I said something really stupid once. I told a friend that my mother was so beautiful, but my dad was ugly. My dad heard it and just laughed it off, but I felt guilty. It haunted me for years. I should never have said that.

I'm going to tell you what my religion is. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Period. Terminato. Finito.

I write funny. If I can make my wife laugh, I know I'm on the right track.

If there's an audience, I think they're going to expect me to be funny. But what if I'm not funny? What if I fail?

I love acting, especially if it's a fantasy of some kind, where it's not just realistic, it's not naturalism.