Explore Quotes by Gene Wilder

I didn't want to be a comedian. I wanted to be an actor - maybe a comic actor, but a real actor - by real, I mean not a comedian. I wanted to be an actor.

There seems to be a pattern. I get one good script every two years.

I feel very Jewish, and I feel very grateful to be Jewish. But I don't believe in God or anything to do with the Jewish religion.

We all grew up on movies with scenes where the actor is lying, and you know he's lying, but he wants to make sure you know it's a lie, and so he overacts and all but winks at you, and everybody in the world except for the girl he's talking to knows he's lying.

If something comes along that's really good, and I think I would be good for it, I'd be happy to do it. But not too many came along. I mean, they came along for the first, I don't know, 15, 18 films, but I didn't do that many. But then I didn't want to do the kind of junk I was seeing.

Lots of things are hard work, but I think writing, for me, after I started acting at 13 years old. I like writing now much more than I do acting only because, well, partly because the scripts that are offered are junk.

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

I'm an actor, not a clown.

I feel alone and safe in public.

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've had a very good life and a very good career. I have no regrets.

I'm funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while.

Success is a terrible thing and a wonderful thing. If you can enjoy it, it's wonderful. If it starts eating away at you, and they're waiting for more from me, or what can I do to top this, then you're in trouble. Just do what you love. That's all I want to do.

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 trust if your life is right, the right things will happen at the right time. If the chords are in harmony inside, I think other things will happen in the same way. That sounded highfalutin' to me once, but I believe it now.

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.

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.

I know a lot of sad people who aren't comedians.

When I was in desperate trouble for maybe eight or nine years, I went to a neuropsychiatrist.

I worked two days in Texas and two days in Hollywood on 'Bonnie and Clyde,' and that was it. I had no idea how it was going to turn out. And when I saw it, I was so upset, or fascinated, or something, by the sight of myself on the screen that I could hardly pay attention to the rest of the movie.

When your mother gives you confidence about anything that you do, you carry that confidence with you.