I think there's a part, just a part of comedians, that is still childlike.
All comedians are, in a way, anarchists. Our job is to make fun of the existing world.
I really don't know what makes a comedian. I think it's a family background and environment. Yet if you put the same ingredients in another person, he may never utter a funny line.
One of the first things you ever learn as a stand-up is don't show fear.
Comedians are never really on vacation because you're always at attention... that antenna is always out there.
It was a decision to work clean. I just prefer to work that way. I have no problem with comedians who don't work that way. There was a temptation in the early '70s to reconsider. I decided against it.
I was influenced by every comedian I ever saw work. That's the only way you learn how to do it.
Comedians are innately programmed to pick up oddities like mispronounced words, upside-down books on a shelf, and generally undetectable mistakes in everyday life.
For some reason, comedians are still children. The social skills somehow never reach us, so we say exactly what we think without weighing the results.
When I started, I was doing all the good comedians I'd ever seen. Then I developed my own voice. My routines are my natural way of looking at the world.
The greatest comedian I've ever seen is Jack Benny. He wasn't afraid of the silences.