Top 177 Quotes & Sayings by Billy Crystal - Page 2

I went to my first game May 30, 1956, and Mantle was in the beginnings of his Triple Crown season. And he was drop-dead handsome.

My dad, Jack, had a great sense of humour and had a strong impact on me and my humour.

From the first time I saw Sid Caesar be funny I knew that's what I had to do.

We're seeing this disintegration of the family movie into these blockbuster things that kids should not be exposed to with explosions, carnage and violence.

I watch old 'Truth or Consequences' on Hulu. 'Concentration.' And 'The Match Game' with Gene Rayburn.

Bambi, to a kid, was scary.

Our professor was Marty Scorsese. Marty was a graduate student, or Mr. Scorsese, which is what I had to call him, and still do when I see him 'cause he gave me a C.

Believe me, happiness is not ticking off Walter Cronkite.

I don't go to any of the big Academy parties while the show is on because, invariably, it turns to people watching me watch the host, and it's not comfortable. I watch at home and hope the show gets to be really good.

It's like being a gym rat, but you're a theater rat, and then that becomes your fraternity house. That becomes your extended family.

I was raised mostly by my mom.

In the late 1960s, I was working as an usher for the New York stage production of 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.'

I've said, I never thought I rebelled. I never - I don't think I've ever had that period. You know, I just had to do what I had to do. You know, I was a good kid.

That's the thing that I'm really most proud of: that I'm still... people still would like to see me. I love seeing them.

My parents always looked like they loved being together. That's what I took from them, and that's how my wife and I are. I still feel like we're dating.

People are always telling you you're done. Someone's always telling you that, especially now in the day of social media.

I don't know what I would have done to rebel. I don't know what I was rebelling against.

Mr. Hitchcock knew what he was doing.

As I sit here writing and look across the room at Janice, I keep thinking of the most heartbreaking question: which of us will go first?

In my standup work, I always do these characters, older people who are just off to the side. It's easier to write a story about the guy who made it to the top, but the middle is so much more interesting, so much more murky.

That whole concept of 'I want to really go after people' - I don't understand that. Is it a roast, or is it an awards show?

When I first started, there were, like... two or three critics that you thought, 'Alright, I hope I get a good review from them.' And now there's millions of them.

As a comedian, you have everything working against you.

Nobody is more truthful when he's acting than De Niro.

I have performed my one-man show '700 Sundays' over 400 times now. There were only two times that I can honestly say I was nervous. The first was when I knew Mel Brooks was in the audience, and the second was when Sid Caesar came.

I'd like to think there is a Heaven, and it starts from the happiest day in your life.

Rehearsals are for gags.

I can't be funny if my feet don't feel right.

My dad had two, sometimes three jobs. Besides running the Commodore Music Shop in Manhattan, he did jazz concerts, and he ran this great jazz label, Commodore.

I can't bear to think of life without Janice. I want to go first because I don't want to miss her, because that would be a pain far worse than any death.

I never stopped believing in us, and I never felt like I was wanting for anything, except for my father, and that was not going to be.

I never felt I had my 15, 16, 17 kind of years the way I maybe should have. It's a huge dent in you that it's hard to knock out and make it all smooth again.

Time scares me: having enough time to do all the things that I want to do in life, just even in terms of forgetting about the business I'm in.

I was always looking for something else to do most of the time, until I got into the acting program. Then, I really found myself.

When I was growing up in the house, we'd watch the Oscars.

I've never looked at - with the exception of little snippets - very much of anything I've done in the last 15, 20 years.

My dad died when I was 15 and worked way too much.

When I was about 21 and just about to get out of college at NYU, Vietnam was raging, and I was a frustrated musician for a little bit.

Losing my parents, who I admired, loved and needed, it took a long time to be able to move on.

I've worn down America.

I'm proud that I have done so many different kinds of things and maintained an amazing family. And I think that's the joy: that I've been able to have everything.

My girls turned out great.

Two things I really wanted to be: a stand-up comic or a New York Yankee - or a really funny New York Yankee.

I have to admit, I was a little bit of a misfit.

I was a good baseball player. I still play a couple of times a week as part of my daily workout. Just throwing the ball, running around, fielding ground balls, you know. It's better to me than being on a treadmill or some sort of Zumba class.

You have to really respect what your kids are doing with their kids and how they're raising them. You can't push your way into areas where you shouldn't be saying anything. You have to always remember they're not your own kids. Play with them, love them, spoil them to death - then hand them back.

I really could've been a good student, but I was always hearing an imaginary audience.

As far as the media goes, I'm driving in the left lane at 28 miles an hour.

All that time, you go, 'God, am I slipping away here?' And then something great happens, you get a call, and work begets more work.

What life throws at you - you just have to learn how to hit it, which is a baseball metaphor. The ball's outside, you hit to the right. You don't let them go by.

We're in this together. We are Americans. We all have to do the best we can. And we will because that's who we are.

I pride myself in being able to survive just about any situation on stage now. I can handle pressure.

My Aunt Sheila was terrifying! She would put a napkin in her mouth and say, 'You've got something on your face, dear. Let me just scratch that off your face. Let me sand your cheek.'

I think I've far exceeded what I ever thought I could possibly do.

President Clinton knew the course and goes, 'Here's what you want to do here.' By the fourth hole, you wanted to hit him with your putter.

My grandparents invented joylessness. They were not fun. I've already had more fun with my grandchildren than my grandparents ever had with me.

What's so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you're constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that.

It took five years to get 'Parental Guidance' made, and it was a fight every second.

The decision-making process was very difficult: is this how I want my career to start, with playing Jodie Dallas on this show?

Performing was how I was able to release this pain I had.