Top 165 Quotes & Sayings by Bob Newhart - Page 2

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American comedian Bob Newhart.

Last updated on September 19, 2024.

I don't know how to do a show not in front of a live audience.

Bob Newhart

All comedians are, in a way, anarchists. Our job is to make fun of the existing world.

Bob Newhart

There was a sea of change in comedy in the late 1950s and '60s. We were dealing with vignettes as opposed to jokes. We were more socially aware.

Bob Newhart

The only thing I have never done is a Broadway play. I'm not sure I have the discipline necessary to do a Broadway play. I know it holds a fascination for certain actors.

Bob Newhart

The first time I heard Richard Pryor, I knew he would be a major force in the world of comedy.

Bob Newhart

You do a clean show and it's over and the audience have enjoyed themselves and you've enjoyed yourself, and you haven't had to resort to shock.

Bob Newhart

I know Chuck Lorre personally, and am familiar with his work going back to 'Roseanne' and 'Cybil.'

Bob Newhart

I don't have a stack of scripts.

Bob Newhart

I don't know how many sacred cows there are today. I think there's a little confusion between humor and gross passing for humor. That's kind of regrettable.

Bob Newhart

Humor's a weapon if you want to make it one.

Bob Newhart

There isn't a comedian in the world that hasn't bombed.

Bob Newhart

The best advice I was probably given and the best advice I could give someone who is trying to get into the comedy field is to take advantage of every opportunity you have to work to hone your skills.

Bob Newhart

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.

Bob Newhart

One time I happened to use the word 'denigrate' onstage, and it didn't get any reaction. So as I continued my act, the left side of my brain was fast-forwarding to see if I had any other big words coming up.

Bob Newhart

I don't watch that much television.

Bob Newhart

Humor is so important to the American scene throughout history.

Bob Newhart

I'm very open to the up-and-comers.

Bob Newhart

The first time I got up in front of an audience was terror, abject terror, which continued for another four or five years. There still is, a little bit.

Bob Newhart

I don't think of myself as an American Master. I've just been making a living.

Bob Newhart

Without great writing, you've got a bunch of actors bumping into each other.

Bob Newhart

I made people laugh as a kid, but that's not how you make a living.

Bob Newhart

I think the thing about it is when you grow up in Chicago there's such a thing as putting on airs, you know? And you just learn not to put on airs. Don't act like, 'Oh boy, I'm somebody.' They'll slap you down.

Bob Newhart

Funny is funny is funny.

Bob Newhart

What you see on stage is pretty much the way I am... a dry sense of humor.

Bob Newhart

I was an accountant in Chicago, and a friend of mine, Ed Gallagher, was in advertising. At 4:30 every day I'd be bored, and I would call him. He'd interview me.

Bob Newhart

You may have done 20 great shows in a row and come to one, and it doesn't work. You never presume anything.

Bob Newhart

It's kind of hard coming from 'Saturday Night Live,' which is a sketch-driven show, to a movie.

Bob Newhart

I'm not what you'd call a Method actor.

Bob Newhart

'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' was the best television, the best cast, the best-written television show ever.

Bob Newhart

I've always said people say on a dramatic show, 'I was crying. It was so emotional when he went and grabbed that little girl from a burning building and handed her over to her mother.' In comedy, the best thing you can say is, 'I think it's funny.'

Bob Newhart

People have told me, 'My dad passed on, but I have great memories of watching your shows with him.' It doesn't get any better than that.

Bob Newhart

Stand-up is different from television. In stand-up, you've got to be in control.

Bob Newhart

Well I was much too practical to presume to have a career in comedy.

Bob Newhart

I would say I came from upper middle class family.

Bob Newhart

I don't know how doctors pick one specialty over another. Some you can understand. Pediatricians. Or gynecologists delivering babies, bringing a new life into the world, but how does someone want to be a proctologist? How can you fall in love with proctology?

Bob Newhart

I just made the decision that I was going to try comedy, and if didn't work, then I knew it didn't work. Then I would go back and do whatever. But at least I wouldn't torture myself the rest of my life, wondering whatever would have happened.

Bob Newhart

Sometimes you forget you're famous. You wonder, 'Why is that person staring at me?'

Bob Newhart

I think there's a part, just a part of comedians, that is still childlike.

Bob Newhart

I have to warn you, I'm not just some sitcom guy. I'm now an author.

Bob Newhart

I'm not a classically trained actor. I'm not a product of Stavlovski method or anything like that.

Bob Newhart

There is an edginess in my work that people don't always recognize.

Bob Newhart

If you look at Jack Benny, George Burns, or Don Rickles, they've all had long, successful marriages. So, I think there's something about laughter and the durability of a marriage.

Bob Newhart

Jack Benny was, without a doubt, the bravest comedian I have ever seen work. He wasn't afraid of silence. He would take as long as it took to tell the story.

Bob Newhart

When I was off TV, people would ask me to please come back, which I think was their way of saying, 'There's nothing out there for us.'

Bob Newhart

Well, my career choice made a difference because I never would have met my wife, Jenny. I met her through comedian Buddy Hackett. He set us up on a blind date and then we got married.

Bob Newhart

I've been a very lucky actor.

Bob Newhart

I just don't think most people put myself and Robert Frost in the same category.

Bob Newhart

I am one of the great wasters of time. I have made it an art form. I can get up at 8 o'clock in the morning, be out of the house by 8:30 and back by 5 P.M., and I'll be going all day long and accomplish absolutely nothing. It's an amazing talent.

Bob Newhart

Don't be silly and don't waste your time.

Bob Newhart

I don't have a stack of scripts that, when I get home, studios are clamoring, saying, 'Has Bob read ours yet?'

Bob Newhart

More and more, as I get older, people come up to me and say, 'Thank you for all the laughter.' And my standard answer is, 'It was my pleasure.' But that's the truth.

Bob Newhart

For a comedian, there is nothing better than watching another great comedian.

Bob Newhart

I was influenced by every comedian I ever saw work. That's the only way you learn how to do it.

Bob Newhart

I love portraying the totally indifferent person.

Bob Newhart

When I started out in 1960, I thought it might possibly last a couple of years. I never expected it to last 42. I take great satisfaction in that longevity.

Bob Newhart

There are some actresses that can't do comedy; it's too heavy-handed.

Bob Newhart

I'm most proud of the longevity of my marriage, my kids, and my grandchildren. If you don't have that, you really don't have very much.

Bob Newhart

I am a minimalist. I like saying the most with the least.

Bob Newhart

I still feel thirty, except when I try to run.

Bob Newhart

Don't ever have two dogs. That way you won't know which one to blame.

Bob Newhart