- [on his All in the Family (1971) co-star Carroll O'Connor] He couldn't have been more different from Archie Bunker. He cared about the little guy. He shone a light on bigotry and ignorance and hope. Arguably, he created the single most indelible character in the history of American television.
- [on why his career skidded in the late 1990s when he split his time between movies and politics] People kept asking me, "How do you balance it?," and the point is, you don't. I know now, about me: I can't split my attention in that way. It doesn't work. I mean, it shows, to be honest with you. You can't do both.
- [on producing The Bucket List (2007)] This is kind of a little minefield here. You want to get the tone right for it. This is a subject that you have to deal with comically. It's still got to be funny. You want sentiment, not sentimentality. These are all the sidewalls you want to not fracture the picture on. Not that I don't like an easy job.
- I like to think of myself as a very young old person. But you start thinking, "How many years am I going to have to be productive?" Especially in our business, youth is so stressed. You start thinking, "How many more movies am I going to get to make?" Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll make five more.
- Stand by Me (1986) was a unique directing experience because ideas came from everywhere. Doing a period piece about the world of childhood is an adventure, each day on-set; people from the crew threw their own childhood memories into the production.
- [on his on and off screen chemistry with Carroll O'Connor, who played Archie Bunker] Every week, we came up with a little play, and the collaborateness, and the way that Norman Lear allowed us all to contribute. That was the most fun, and what I've learned from Carroll O'Connor has held me in very good stead.
- [on Carroll O'Connor]: Carroll set the tone of how we were to work on All in the Family. He was very inclusive--he allowed everybody to participate, and say what they wanted. He really was a thoughtful and intelligent person who cared about injustice. Whatever we all felt--whether it was about the Vietnam War or race issues or women's issues, those things got into the show and he was part of creating that freedom.
- [on running for political office] I have thought about it. The problem was, I was seriously thinking about it a while ago, and then the family sat down and we all talked about it, and then I polled about 40 percent in my own family. I figured if I can't carry my own family, then I'm not going to run.
- [on sexual harassment in the film community] It's not just our community - this is happening in every workplace in America. It's disgusting. Harvey Weinstein funded the documentary The Hunting Ground (2015). How do you do that?! We have to create a safe atmosphere where women are able to tell their stories. He's one schmuck who did what he did. But there are a lot of great people in Hollywood who don't do stuff like that.
- I'm worried about the country not being here. Or not being here in the way I have lived it my whole life, which is being a liberal democracy. We don't have one right now. The Founding Fathers designed a system of checks and balances that do not exist anymore in Anerica. You have a Republican Congress that is more than willing to enable a man who lies every minute of his life and is in league with an authoritarian enemy.
- Stephen King's obvious reputation is as a great horror writer, but to me, it was always the quality of his writing - the character development and the dialogue. It kind of gets overshadowed.
- I've made movies that nobody saw initially, and then, all the sudden, people over the years pick up on it. Like This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and The Princess Bride (1987).
- I love the idea of making movies that kids and adults can go to together and both get something out of it, and not just, "Oh, I've got to take my kid to the movie because they want to see the next, you know, Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) or whatever."
- There's not one film that I've ever made that could get made today by a studio, not one - even A Few Good Men (1992) because it's an adult courtroom drama, and studios do not make them any more. And so every movie that I make, have made and will make is always going be independently financed.
- I remember once, years ago, I met Sting, and he told me that he had seen This Is Spinal Tap (1984) 50 times. He said: "Every time I watch it, I don't know whether to laugh or cry."
- I could win the Nobel Prize and they'd write "Meathead wins the Nobel Prize."
- I'd never ask an actor to do something I couldn't do - not that I'm the best actor in the world - but if I can do it, then I know that anyone I hire can do these things.
- [on his infamous flop North (1994)] I loved doing it, and some of the best jokes I ever had in a movie, are in that movie. I made this little fable, and people got mad at me, because, you know, I had done When Harry Met Sally... (1989), and Misery (1990), and A Few Good Men (1992), and everybody said "Oh, it should be a more important kind of movie." I said, "Why? Why can't you just make a little slice of a fable or something?"
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content