Top 173 Quotes & Sayings by Fred Armisen - Page 3

When punk came along, it made perfect sense to me. I found it melodic. The Clash, Buzzcocks.

I don't like watching shows where all of a sudden you're like, what happened? They shot the last season in Las Vegas?

I work better when I'm juggling projects. Nothing worse than watching someone really embrace what they're doing if they love it too much.

You have to understand how lucky I feel. I was on 'Saturday. Night. Live.' I played with the Clash! On what planet would I look at anything in my life in any less-than-stellar way?

Questlove redefined what a band can be, and Paul Shaffer and Max Weinberg really put their own spin on it. I bow down to these people. All of them.

I will admit that I purposely stress myself out. But I think I like stressing myself out. There's a glamour to, like, 'I've got to get to the airport!' I just like the caricature.

I like to think Portland and L.A. are not rivals; they're cousins. As cities on the West Coast, they're distinct in their own way but still culturally similar.

Since I was, like, an infant... I remember being in love with television. I loved listening to music. I wanted to be on records, and I wanted to be on TV.

I see everything as a positive that can only help me.

James Franco has turned his life into a real art project. In my opinion, that's the way to live.

I started comedy in, like, 1998.

'Sandinista!' is a masterpiece.

I learned at 'SNL' that it's a bummer to bum people out.

I spent most of my 20s playing music. I was in a band and we worked really hard and did not get very far. I was really close to being this guy who used to be in this band who is still playing and trying to get some recordings together, but I got really lucky. That's never lost in me, that I went through Saturday Night Live.

If someone can write great music... Paul McCartney is a genius. He's so prolific. All we should do is bow down to Paul McCartney.

I'm a fan of Talking Heads going way back.

I met Steve Jobs once. In '06? He had a sense of humor.

There are so many disagreements in the world, but I like the idea of people agreeing on something like art.

I spent a lot of time lifting my drums into a van, playing to ten people night after night. I can't complain about anything now.

When I first started going to Portland, people told me about Stumptown. They were like 'Oh, it's the best coffee,'and I thought, 'How good could it really be?' I'm like, 'Sure, great, uh... I'd love to see it.' But then when I went, it truly, I am not kidding, is the best coffee I have ever had.

The more I keep myself occupied and jump from thing to thing, the more I think it enriches both.

There's something that I can't describe about the city [Portland] that I really love - just physically - how it feels to walk around there, and have coffee there. Also, the way that it's a little overcast sometimes. Something about Portland just really resonated with me.

I don't know any artists or painters, like, "Oh that painting group." I want to write down this idea of a group of artists who treat it like a band. Like, "Who made the painting?" "All four of us did."

Avoid people who tell you that something you want to do is not possible.

There's no judgment on bands that continue on who aren't popular; some people get enjoyment out of it. I'm just not one of those people. I wanted attention.

Remember that there's no one way of doing things. ... If you just get a hammer and hit it really hard, whatever it is, I guarantee you it'll open.

If there is a blues song, it just goes in one ear and out the other. But other than that, if it stays with you and when we are all 90, we're going to look back at those songs, and it's going to be emotional. And when someone plays it, and you know it, and you're going to go, "I know that song and I love it."

I like it when people are driven. I love that in any field of work, in architecture or whatever. Like Lorne Michaels - he pays attention to every detail.

My father came from Germany. My mom came from Venezuela. My father's culturally German, but his father was Japanese.

That smile on Stive Jobs face... My impersonation came from being a fan.

The population increasing, some of it could be in countries we haven't thought of making art in. I've never entertained making comedy in China. Like what world is that? I don't know how they would perceive art or sketch comedy. It's not a matter of intellect; it's a matter of language.

Portland is where young people go to retire.

Some rules are good. For example, off the top of my head, let's say a stand-up comedian or a talk show host wearing a nice suit - as a ponderer, I grew up like, "Why don't they just go up there in their army jacket? They're fine!" Then little by little, you think, "You know, it's kind of nice to look nice, like you made the effort." Then you're back at rule one; that was the original rule.

Sometimes I think I'm a really interesting guy.

[Paul McCartney] never, at the time, was going back to leaning back on the roots of his old band. He always built upon where he was, which was in London. And he didn't overuse synthesizers. He used them just enough. It's such a cool sound.

I wish I was one of those people who could write script after script and pages and pages. I can only aspire to do that.

It's already years ago now, but there's that South Korean music artist Psy, who had that hit song and it was a hit song here. I'm like, "Wait a minute. There's a chance. There's a way we can have language not be such an important part of comedy."

I was raised in New York and spent two years in Rio. My parents met at the University of Southern Mississippi, and they had me there, and then we moved to New York. I'm not very familiar with Mississippi.

I don't miss anything ever. Because to me, missing something is like going backward a little bit. I don't miss being in a punk band. For me, 'SNL' is like... this is gonna sound overly dramatic, but... the way I am, it feels like I'm a soldier, so it was like, 'What do you want me to do? Put me anywhere. Do you want me to do these sketches? Great.'

Someday maybe I'll go back and see what the Deep South is like.

Just a lot of those bands [like The Blue Jean Committee] started off in blues, and then they all transformed into other kinds.

I thrive most when I have to juggle things.

We lived in Chicago, but the music we were inspired by was from D. C.

As far as paintings go, I always think about what it's like to move them and hang them up and hope they don't drop. To me, that seems like a big gamble, but that comes from me not being a painter.

In my opinion, there's this new phenomenon where guys used to talk about cars a lot in the past. But, more and more it's becoming them talking about recording studios.

I was in a band and it wasn't working out the way I wanted. Then somehow, little by little, I started doing a couple comedy things. All of a sudden I was being asked to do more and more comedy things. There was this message from the world saying, "Maybe you should go this direction."

I loved our music discussion. I live for discussions like that. It's my favorite thing because it means that people care about music, and actually have an opinion. I feel like it's dying. Everyone is just really like, they take a step back, but to actually have conviction about what's good and bad: love it.

"Macarena" is a great song. If music is something you can remember - the worst crime music can do is to be forgettable.

I still feel lucky whenever I hear a director say, "Action!" Because then I think, "Whoa, I'm really in the movies. This is a real thing happening." I've never not been enthralled by that. I still love it. I still love hearing it, and I feel really lucky all the time.

Everyone goes through all kinds of relationship situations. I'm lucky that I get to be on two comedy shows [during divorce].

Rules are really weird things, aren't they? I feel like the more I do something, the more I see through rules. I see the reason to ignore it, but at the same time, "That's why they made that rule!"

I started comedy in like 1998.

People are always nice, so I can't complain. My name used to be SNL! More and more, people call me by my name.