Mel Brooks

Humor is just another defense against the universe.

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.

You got to be brave. If you feel something, you've really got to risk it.

Hope for the Best. Expect the worst. Life is a play. We're unrehearsed.

If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy and colorful and lively.

We want to get people laughing; we don't want to offend anybody.

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.

The only weapon I've got is comedy

I've been accused of vulgarity. I say that's bullshit.

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

Never retire! Do what you do and keep doing it. But don't do it on Friday. Take Friday off. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, go fishing...Then Monday to Thursday, do what you've been doing all your life. My point is: Live full and don't retreat.

I'm still a horse that can run. I may not be able to win the Derby, but what do you do when you retire? People retire and they vegetate. They go away and they dry up.

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.

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

A brushstroke of vanity is good to add into the mix, to balance your timidity. We're all blessed with a lot of timidity and a lot of worry and anxiety, and vanity is a good antidote.

Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made.

Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh.

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.

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.

Immortality is a by-product of good work.