I'm fascinated by real-time behavior.

I've been buying guitars since 1964, and you fool yourself into thinking it's the last one.

People ask me, 'What's your next film?' And I never know.

I read kind of serious books about fairly arcane subjects.

I watch mostly documentaries and things that aren't remotely funny.

Ninety-nine percent of television shows, I've never seen.

The reason I work with the same people, it's not just an accident.

Most films, when you finish as an actor, you just go home.

I don't know if I'd mastered that documentary format, but I wanted to move on from it.

All these movies are observational comedies. I see somebody, maybe a dry cleaner, and notice how they are. Maybe I'll decide to turn a person with those traits into a studio chief.

I get asked, 'Who would you really like to work with?' I'm already working with them. Smart, talented, funny people, good musicians, an extended family, good friends.

People who take themselves too seriously, who can't see anything else, are usually funny.

In 'Spinal Tap,' there's the fake historical quality of 'Stonehenge.' It's something the musicians look at with a mystical reverence. In folk music, it's the seriousness with which these people approach their 'art.'

The early parodies that talk-show people did of rock n' roll in the '50s were terrible. They didn't know it, they didn't like it - and that's a lethal combination.

The minute the money is more, you lose your control, so then there's no point.

Comedies don't get nominated for Oscars. It doesn't happen. So when we set out to do a movie, it's not what we're thinking about.

You can pick almost any field, and there's going to be weird people.

I'm not really premeditative in any way at all. I come up with an idea, hopefully for a film, and then I'm lucky enough to do the film.

Many times I'll improvise it, which isn't done a lot in movies or commercials. But a lot of my commercials are improvised.

They sell these golf aids that attach to your knee and your head and are supposed to keep your swing correct. It's futile beyond belief. I've never bought any, but I could watch those ads for 24 hours straight. People with straight faces saying this thing will take strokes off your game - that's my peculiar obsession.

It's infrequent that that happens - great performances and magical cinematography and great direction.

Peter Sellers is my great comedy hero.

The movies have a way of seeping out there over time. We don't put them in 2,000 theaters. It wouldn't work that way.

Comedy is like music. You have to know the key and you have to find players with good chops.