The Very Best of Robin Williams: Memories of a Comedy Legend
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‘I was once on a German talk show, and this woman said to me, 'Mr. Williams, why do you think there is not so much comedy in Germany?' And I said, 'Did you ever think you killed all the funny people?'
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‘Ballet: Men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are.’
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Talking about his film Popeye:
‘If you watch it backwards, it has a plot.’
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‘They're talking about partial nuclear disarmament, which is also like talking about partial circumcision - you either go all the way or forget it.’
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‘Australians are basically English rednecks. If Darwin had landed in Australia, he would have gone: "I'm wrong".’
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‘Men can't fake an orgasm, who wants to look that dumb, you know what I'm saying?’
WHAT HE SAID ABOUT HIMSELF
‘I believe in destiny. There must be a reason that I am as I am. There must be.’
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'My battles with addiction definitely shaped how I am now. They really made me deeply appreciate human contact. And the value of friends and family, how precious that is.'
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'I don't have a college degree, and my father didn't have a college degree, so when my son, Zachary, graduated from college, I said, "My boy's got learnin’".'
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'People ask why I do children's comedies. I'm happy being a Robert de Niro for nine-year-olds.'
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'People think they know you. They expect you to be literally like you are on TV or in the movies, bouncing off the walls. A woman in an airport once said to me, "Be zany!" People always want zany, goofy shit from me. It takes a lot of energy to do that. If you do that all the time, you'll burn out.'
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'I went to rehab in wine country, just to keep my options open.'
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'When I'm awake, I don't want to go to sleep. I don't want the hassle of turning the light off, putting my head down and then all the thoughts. I don't want all those thoughts.'
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'After my heart attack, my heart was all out of rhythm. It sounded like I had Tito Puente from an Afro-Cuban band on the front valve. Then they do an angiogram, which is going through your groin to get to your heart. And who knew that was the way to a man’s heart? I have a cow valve now. It’s wonderful. I can shit standing up.'
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‘I love kids, but they are a tough audience.’
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'I'm a born entertainer. When I open the fridge door and the light goes on, I burst into song.'
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‘I left school and couldn't find acting work, so I started going to clubs where you could do stand-up. I've always improvised, and stand-up was this great release. All of a sudden, it was just me and the audience.’
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‘Stand-up is the place where you can do things that you could never do in public. Once you step on stage you’re licensed to do that. It’s and understood relationship. You walk on stage – it’s your job.’
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‘I only ever play Vegas one night at a time.’
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‘I like my wine like my women - ready to pass out.’
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‘I started doing comedy because that was the only stage that I could find. It was the pure idea of being on stage. That was the only thing that interested me, along with learning the craft and working, and just being in productions with people.’
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‘You have this idea that you’d better keep working otherwise people will forget. And that was dangerous.’
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‘I don't do well with snakes and I can't dance.’
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‘The idea of having a steady job is appealing.’
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‘...And now that you have a child you have to clean up your act, 'cause you can't drink anymore. You can't come home drunk and go, "Hey, here's a little switch: Daddy's gonna throw up on you!”’
INTERESTING AND INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES
'You're only given a little spark of madness, you mustn't lose it.'
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‘You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars.’
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'Death is nature's way of saying, "Your table is ready".'
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‘She is not perfect. You are not perfect. The question is whether or not you are perfect for each other.’
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‘Reality… what a concept.’
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‘Good people end up in Hell because they can’t forgive themselves.’
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‘I'm sorry, if you were right, I'd agree with you.’
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'As beatific as Gandhi was, I'm sure there was some guy in a Bombay bar going, "I knew Gandhi . . . he was a prick".'
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‘In America they really do mythologise people when they die.’
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‘When you have a great audience, you can just keep going and finding new things.’
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‘Look at the walls of Pompeii. That's what got the internet started.’
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'Comedy is acting out optimism.'
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'No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.'
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‘What’s right is what’s left if you do everything else wrong.’
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“It's a wonderful feeling when your father becomes not a god but a man to you -- when he comes down from the mountain and you see he's this man with weaknesses. And you love him as this whole being, not as a figurehead.”
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‘There is still a lot to learn and there is always great stuff out there. Even mistakes can be wonderful.’
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‘Only in their dreams can men be truly free. It was always thus and always thus will be.’
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‘You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren’t paying attention to.’
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‘You can start any 'Monty Python' routine and people finish it for you. Everyone knows it like shorthand.’
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“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people that make you feel all alone.”
QUOTES FROM HIS FILMS
Mrs Doubtfire
Mrs Doubtfire: 'He was quite fond of the drink. It was the drink that killed him.'
Miranda: 'How awful. He was an alcoholic?'
Mrs Doubtfire: 'No, he was hit by a Guinness truck.'
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‘If there’s love, dear… those are the ties that bind, and you’ll have a family in your heart, forever. All my love to you, poppet. You’re going to be all right. Bye bye.’
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"My first day as a woman and I'm getting hot flashes!"
Dead Poets Society
‘Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.’
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‘We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.’
Death to Smoochy
‘Friends come in all sizes, take it from me! Golly gee, size doesn’t matter, when you want some friendly patter from a pal who is true.’
The Fisher King
‘There’s three things in this world that you need: Respect for all kinds of life, a nice bowel movement on a regular basis, and a navy blazer.’
Good Morning Vietnam
‘Goooooood morning, Vietnam! It’s 0600 hours. What does the ‘O’ stand for? O my God, it’s early!’
Toys
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br /> ‘I’d hug you, but your body is over there.’
Hook
‘To live would be an awfully big adventure.’
Mork & Mindy
‘He stole your necklace, he stole your ribs, he’s obviously not kosher’
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‘Look, if I wanted a pen and coffee I'd have mugged a waitress.’
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‘Nanu Nanu’
Good Will Hunting
‘You don’t know about real loss because it only occurs when you’ve loved something more than you love yourself. I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much.’
Aladdin
‘Oh, to be free! Not to have to go, ‘Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need?’ To be my own master. Such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasure in the world.’
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‘Are you lookin' at me? Did you rub my lamp? Did you wake me up? Did you bring me here? And all of a sudden, you're walkin' out on me?! I don't think so! Not right now! You're gettin' your wishes, so sit down!’
Jack
‘Please, don’t worry so much. Because in the end, none of us have very long on this Earth. Life is fleeting. And if you’re ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky when the stars are strung across the velvety night. And when a shooting star streaks through the blackness, turning night into day, make a wish, and think of me. Make your life spectacular.’
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT HIM
‘My friendship with Robin Williams is one of the real joys of my life … Robin is a person who gives to people 24 hours a day. The gift of joy, the gift of laughter. Just to be in a room with Robin Williams is a privilege. He’s a gift to the world.’
Christopher Reeve
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‘What hurts most about the apparent suicide of Robin Williams is that as much as he achieved, he died in his own mind unfulfilled. And to an extent, he was unfulfilled — he never found a form that would capture the genius of his stand-up act or his early appearances on The Tonight Show, when his mind worked faster than anyone alive and very possibly dead, when he seemed to be channeling a fleet of circling UFOs containing the galaxy’s best comedy writers. The man didn’t need to play a sitcom alien to seem as if he had his own extraterrestrial energy field.’
David Edelstein, Vulture.com
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‘I don't think I've met anyone as exceptional as Robin was … every moment … could be explosive any which-way, you didn’t know where it was going to go, you didn’t know even where it came from, he seemed to be able to channel the Cosmos, and at the same time he was always totally involved with the people around him, he really had a close touch with everybody he touched.’
Terry Gilliam
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‘So many times you meet people they don't impact you. You meet them and they're gracious and they're nice, and then there are sometimes when you meet somebody and they say one thing and for the rest of your life you carry that one thing and they don't even know that they impacted your life. So here's Robin Williams fully decked out in elephantiasis makeup, like he was the Elephant Man, and we were talking and I'm being super quiet, and he just kind of turns to me and he said, “What's your name?”
And I said, “I'm Mila.”
And he said, “Yeah? You're on '70s?” And then he said, “Remember this moment. Remember this because things like this don't happen very often. Remember this time.”
Having somebody of Robin Williams' stature tell me to just acknowledge something meant so much. He didn't mentor me. He just said, “Step back and appreciate this. You're having an amazing time.” I was so nervous. And he said, “Relax. And don't forget to enjoy yourself because things like this don't happen to everyone.” … All he did was say, "Enjoy yourself and don't forget this." Like: "Just take a breath and acknowledge that you have an amazing opportunity.”
Mila Kunis
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Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien – but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most – from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalised on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.
Barack Obama
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‘Most comics are linear – they plod from subject to subject – but with Robin it was as if it was all fresh and new every single night. This seemed impossible, and indeed it was. It was only through watching him that I saw that what seemed spontaneous was in fact the result of a huge amount of work. Eventually, if you watched long enough, the same bits came around again (though never in the same order), so you could see that he had a massive store of maybe four hours of material backed up in his brain and that he would bring the material out as he needed it. Seeing the craft he brought to bear on his act – that it wasn’t magic but just sheer hard work – only increased my admiration for him.’
Alexei Sayle
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‘Robin Williams, tower of raw and unfiltered talent, is a force this world will not experience again anytime soon. Our prayers and thoughts are with the Williams family.’
Henry Winkler (The Fonz)
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We lost Robin - first witnessed his genius as he created Mork before our eyes in two hours on set. A Force. A Sweet Soul. A Brilliant Artist.
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‘Robin was a lightning storm of comic genius and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him. He was a pal and I can't believe he's gone.’
Steven Spielberg
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‘Robin Williams made the world laugh & think. I will remember & honour that. A great man, artist and friend. I will miss him beyond measure.’