Larry Gelbart Quotes

• Marriage isn't all that it's cracked up to be, let me tell you. Honestly. Marriage is probably the chief cause of divorce.

  Larry Gelbart

  Funny, Witty, Divorce

  "Fictional character: Maj. Frank Burns". TV Series "M*A*S*H", 1972-1983.

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• I think the greatest imagination we can exercise is one that imagines how someone else feels. Because you know how you feel, but so often we attribute our own feelings on to someone else.

  Larry Gelbart

  Exercise, Thinking, Imagination

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• Television is a weapon of mass distractrion.

  Larry Gelbart

  Funny, Television, Weapons

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• I love to play with language; make it do tricks, turn a word inside out to see if it's got a hidden meaning tucked away somewhere, or perhaps find that it's capable of an extra entendre or two. . . . Plotting is nothing I did, or do, naturally. It is the hardest part of the writing process. No matter how many times you plot a script successfully, the next one, representing new and uncharted territory, convinces you that you really don't know how to do it at all.

  Larry Gelbart

  Writing, Play, Two

  "Laughing matters". Book by Larry Gelbart, www.nytimes.com. 1982.

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• One doesn't have a sense of humor. It has you.

  Larry Gelbart

  Inspirational, Laughter, Humor

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• I am on sort of a diet in terms of the Internet. It's the sheer quantity. It's the Niagara of opinion, of information. It's not that I have any kind of compassion fatigue. I just insist on having a life.

  Larry Gelbart

  Compassion, Information, Opinion

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  14 Copy quote

• I refuse to do anything easy. I'm writing for the smartest person out there. I'm not equating myself with the smartest person out there, but hopefully I'm writing to say you're not alone. I'm not alone. We're not alone.

  Larry Gelbart

  Writing, Easy, Refuse

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• Your style is formed by what you can't do.

  Larry Gelbart

  Style

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• Contrary to popular belief, it's not the legs that go first; it's remembering the word for legs.

  Larry Gelbart

  Legs, Firsts, Belief

  "Larry Gelbart's `M*A*S*H' Memories and Comic Asides" by Larry Gelbart, www.sfgate.com. May 17, 1998.

  9 Copy quote

• Today's audience knows more about what's on television than what's in life.

  Larry Gelbart

  Television, Today, Audience

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• If vaudeville had died, television was the box they put it in.

  Larry Gelbart

  Science, Technology, Television

  "Gelbart Holds Seminars On Comedy At Museum" by Peter W. Kaplan, www.nytimes.com. 1984.

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• If Hitler’s still alive, I hope he’s out of town with a musical.

  Larry Gelbart

  Musical, Alive, Towns

  Larry Gelbart (1998). “Laughing Matters: On Writing M-A-S-H, Tootsie, Oh, God!, and a Few Other Funny Things”, Random House Incorporated

  7 Copy quote

• I write what I write and I honestly don't care if it gets on or not. I'm writing to see if I can find out some of what I think about any number of situations. I work it out in the writing.

  Larry Gelbart

  Writing, Thinking, Numbers

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  8 Copy quote

• Most jokes state a bitter truth.

  Larry Gelbart

  Bitterness, States, Bitter Truth

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• I think it makes people frustrated when they have to live their actual lives commercial free and they can't just magically wind up at the part with the happy ending.

  Larry Gelbart

  Thinking, Wind, People

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  5 Copy quote

• A war is like when it rains in New York and everybody crowds into doorways. They all get chummy together perfect strangers. The only difference, of course, is in a war it's also raining on the other side of the street and the people who are chummy over there are trying to kill the people who are over here who are chums.

  Larry Gelbart

  New York, War, Rain

  "Fictional character: Capt. Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce". TV Series "M*A*S*H" ("The Interview", 1976), www.imdb.com. 1972-1983.

  7 Copy quote

• I know one thing - very few writers in Southern California get to write what they want to write. We are more or less worker ants, working for either film companies or tv companies or Internet companies. We do a lot of assigned work. Feelings hardly ever enter into it. If they do, they tend to be on a sort of soap opera level.

  Larry Gelbart

  Writing, California, Southern

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  4 Copy quote

• The Amazon is still burning; we just don't hear the smoke detectors anymore.

  Larry Gelbart

  Nature, Burning, Amazon

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• I'm a recovering optimist.

  Larry Gelbart

  Optimist, Recovering

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• We may be born equal but we're not equally talented.

  Larry Gelbart

  May, Born, Equal

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• The subtle differences in language and humor that get lost in translation, for example, make it almost impossible for big companies to do something that will appeal at home and abroad.

  Larry Gelbart

  Home, Differences, Example

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  4 Copy quote

• I think technology is such that we can reach new heights but we need some of the basics of the pre-technological age. It's counter-productive to be able to type a hundred words a minute but not know what the words mean.

  Larry Gelbart

  Mean, Technology, Thinking

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  7 Copy quote

• I don't think you can name a good picture where the production or the possible promotion isn't "cast-contingent." That means the film needs not just star power but star box office power.

  Larry Gelbart

  Stars, Mean, Thinking

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• Reality television is less honest than YouTube. YouTube is the real reality.

  Larry Gelbart

  Real, Television, Honest

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  4 Copy quote

• One does not have humor. It has you.

  Larry Gelbart

  Doe

  4 Copy quote

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