Top 118 Quotes & Sayings by Raphael Bob-Waksberg - Page 2

There's a widening of an idea of what a TV show can be or how it can be told, and that's partially in the diversity of the creators and the stories. Because there are so many new networks and streaming services popping up every day that need more content, there are more opportunities to take risks.

I kind of want to take the writer down a peg. I think there are a lot of pretentious writers in this business, which I am certainly one, in certain cases.

I think '300 Arguments' is a real tiny wallop of a book. It looks very slim, and at first, each little two-sentence or one-sentence thing kind of stands on its own, but again, as you read it, you get sucked into the momentum of it, and the whole of it is much larger than the sum of its parts in a really beautiful way.

In 'Bojack,' at least at first, we had to couch some of the sadder or weirder or introspective stuff we were doing in the costume of a typical adult animated comedy. With 'Undone,' it felt like we'd outgrown that expectation.

It's something I've seen a lot of: these tortured geniuses, or self-proclaimed tortured geniuses, who kind of take their damage out on others. I think being a showrunner, you have a lot of unchecked power and I think that can be a very dangerous thing.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit' is one of my favorite movies of all time, and in fact it is maybe the first movie that I really loved in an adult way.

The Comeback' is so cringey and difficult, but watching it, what I was really struck with was the kindness and the generosity.

You need to know that you cannot control your feelings, and you cannot control your feelings about your feelings, but, as best as you can, intellectually understand that your feelings are valid and they're okay and don't try to stifle them or feel shame about them.

The caustic style of 'Archer' was really on my mind when I was first doing 'BoJack' - perhaps too much!

I think 'BoJack' is definitely very much about kind of the burdens of being comfortable.

I'm mostly interested in characters and how they manifest themselves in their relationships. I'm delighted that people relate to the characters in 'Bojack,' and hopefully they will too to the characters in 'Undone.' If they understand themselves or feel seen in a new way, I think that's a wonderful thing.

Whenever I talk about how good season two of 'The Comeback' is, people ask, 'Do I have to see season one?' And I say, 'You get to see season one.'

I think some actors are very smart and have the tools. They know how to disconnect themselves from the characters, but I think for a lot of them, it's very difficult.

Look, anything any writer writes is going to be on some level autobiographical. Part of the funny/sad thing is that you don't always know how autobiographical you're being.

The nature of being an artist in any field, but specifically in comedy, is that almost as soon as you finish something you hate it, and it feels dated, and not your best work.

I'd like to think that 'Bojack,' in some ways, pushes the edges of what some people think an adult animated show can be. That was an intention of mine while making the show.

It's much easier for me to think in terms of character movement and emotion and story rather than, 'What are some wacky hijinks we can throw together?'

I - you know, I know almost nothing about sports. So whenever I hear anything involving sports, my go-to move is to kind of nod and agree.

The best stuff is done by people who love it, whether that's high art or low art, whatever that is.

I always think that's really lazy, when I'm watching a TV show or a movie or something, and there's a flashback and the idea is, 'This one moment is the reason that everything happened. This character saw this guy, and this guy said this thing to him, and that's why he is this way.' Because I think in real life, it's not so one-to-one.

I was doing this really wacky sketch comedy but at the same time writing these dark, cerebral plays about characters coming to grips with their loneliness and heartbreak. My dream job has always been a way to combine the two. I would say 'BoJack Horseman' is the culmination of all of that.

I do not want to have feelings that are just for me that I cannot express to other people. That frustrates me.

My mom's last name is Bob. My dad's last name is Waksberg. Every time I try to get a ticket at will call, they say last name. And I say, Bob-Waksberg. And I see them looking under W. I go, no, Bob-Waksberg. And they go, no, last name. And I go no, my last name is Bob-Waksberg.

BoJack' is a very much a format-based show. The story should always match the format, but I don't necessarily think the story has to come first.

Any show that kind of relish the damage of its main character without really investigating what that damage does, where it's from or what it means, is a show I think needs to be taken down a peg.

I think there's something very valid about having feelings that you can't articulate. I don't think you should shut those feelings out, but I also want to be able to communicate them.

I want to give my characters nuance.

For me as an audience member, it makes the characters more relatable and interesting if they're evolving and changing - it makes them feel more real in a way. But not every cartoon is trying to be real.

I had behavioral problems. I didn't always feel like I fit in. Which is somewhat universal. I don't want to imply that I was like some super out-there kid.

For a long time in my adolescence, comedy was the only tool I had for communication and dealing with the world and dealing with people - I didn't know any other lens in which to do it.

I really believe that comedy is an incredible tool, and you can use it in many ways.

It takes great strength and courage to ask for help.

What I also love about Lorrie Moore stories is they take me a long time to read. They're not easy for me because each sentence, I feel like, is so rich and dense, it just sends me off in a thousand directions.

A lot of the hesitancy to talk about the industry in real, concrete terms is not because of people being afraid of biting the hand that feeds them, and more about the fear that people in the middle of the country will not be interested.

I don't want the government to be censoring people, I don't think there should be censoring boards, but I think that means that we the artists need to be very careful about what we're putting out and what were saying and how we're saying it. And I don't think we're being as careful as we should be.

I wanted BoJack to be more of a cautionary figure than someone that you aspire to be.

I would like to see BoJack find some sort of peace. I don't know if happiness is the right word; I don't know if he deserves that... But I would like to think even a soul as lost as BoJack can somehow crawl his way toward redemption.

I always felt like the best comedy came out of sadness, and some of my favourite shows growing up - a lot of my influences - have these very sad characters and treat that sadness seriously while also being very funny.

I love to go on road trips. That's one thing I love about being in L.A. and having a car. In New York, you can get around on the subway but you can't really go anywhere. But there's a danger in believing that where you are defines you.

Jessica Biel is a really interesting case. She actually called us after the table read and said, "You guys should go meaner." She pitched us, and said, "Look, I know there are a lot of things to make fun of me about. I don't want people to think you're pulling punches. Please, dive in." We asked, "Could we tell a joke about your friend and mentor Stephen Collins?" And she said, "Well maybe not so much in that area. As long as the jokes were about me, I'm game for everything."

In a certain way, sometimes it does feel like we say goodbye to a character, and we don't want to bring them back unless we have a good reason. We left the door open if we wanted to use him more. I always think it's better to leave the audience wanting more.

The beauty of Netflix is that you can figure out a good part of the season before you get started. You're never in the hole of, "Oh, we've already released the first four episodes, and now we gotta make the finale, and we've already promised this."

I am wary of repeating myself too much. In this age of Netflix, as a Netflix show, if you want to go back and watch a season 1 episode, you can do that easily. I'm not interested in repeating the same story beats over and over and over again. But part of the truth of BoJack story is about how much he repeats himself and these patterns that are difficult to get out of. I'm trying not to be evasive about that. I'm not using that as an excuse. I think that's convenient to fall back on as a TV writer: "Oh, it's a show about stagnation."

BoJack especially is a very dialogue based show. A lot of the comedy comes from conversations, and a lot of story comes from misunderstandings and people trying to connect with each other, and there was a really interesting challenge trying to write a script with no dialogue.

That's part of the comedy, too, is we do have jokes throughout of hanging a lantern on the absurdity of the world. Like, when BoJack's flying over the neighborhood, you see some houses have swimming pools in the backyard, and what does that mean? Why would there be a swimming pool underwater? But we thought it was funny.

One of the things I've found really interesting about the show is that a lot of people really relate to our animal characters, more than we thought they would. Part of that is, because they are animals, people project themselves onto them. If BoJack just looks like Will Arnett, people go, "Oh, I know who that guy is. That's a Will Arnett type." But because he's a horse, people can go, "Oh, I'm kind of like him in some ways."

'Lost in Translation' movie says something interesting about the alienation of being a stranger in a strange land, but also of being a celebrity. That kind of feeling of not being in the same strata as everyone else.

I want each season to feel new and special. I don't want it to feel, "Oh, more of this." That's something that's easy to do in the first three seasons, and harder to do as you go. I'd rather err on the side of blowing up everything and being like, "Why did you do that? There was more story to tell there," and moving the family to Mexico like on Weeds, instead of people going, "Oh, we've seen this already. We're tired of this."

It was fun figuring out the science of the world as much as we wanted to figure out, and then playing fast and loose in other places. Which we do with our show in general. One of the things we love about the BoJack Horseman show is that we can always fall back on, "It's a ridiculous cartoon." And it is! It's a serious, relationship-based grounded character tragedy, but it is also a ridiculous cartoon.

It's a fun show, BoJack Horseman to do, and that gets around. It's easy, especially for a lot of actors who don't do a lot of voiceover. No makeup, no wardrobe, they really just come in, the lines are right there, we goof around for a half hour, and I think it feels like, "Oh, yeah, this is why I got into this business: to play around and have some fun." There's no paparazzi, most of them don't do any promotion for the show. it's the fun part of acting, without the other stuff.

Daniel Radcliffe was actually a fan of the show and excited to be on it. Some of it is we've gone long enough that we're legitimate. Even if they don't know the show, they know we are a show and not some weird thing that's going to go away. Also, the more celebrities we get on BoJack show, the more it feels like a club to be in: "If Naomi Watts will make a fool of herself, I guess I can make a fool of myself, too."

I think it's good to leave people with the memory of that being a great character. And if we have a reason to bring him back, we'll bring him back.

I think you can imagine everyone has ankle weights on, or technology, and there's a reason that people aren't floating around. But I also liked this idea that in this world, people forgot they can swim. The modern world weighs you down, there's always emails to check, you've gotta go to your job and pay your mortgage. You're not really thinking, "Oh, yeah, I can swim around." BoJack discovering it is a big deal, and kind of fun.

I don't know if that's the best story for BoJack, long-term. I do love the world, and I love playing around in it and it feels like an elastic enough world that, any story I want to tell, I can tell about these characters in this world. I can talk about parents and children, husbands and wives, the troops, or Hollywood. It does feel like an endless playground at this point, it would be a shame if we cut it off early for fear of repeating the same things over and over again. But I am looking to move the story and character somewhat.

This is why Jessica Biel is a successful actress: because, despite the punchlines, you know how to tell a joke.

Anything is possible in this universe. It could be that you turn the chair around it's just a glove handcuffed to a bomb, like in Inspector Gadget.

It's really cool to get these guests on the show BoJack Horseman: not just actors, but, "Can I get Jonathan Lethem on my weird talking horse cartoon show to talk about how growing up in Brooklyn, he always dreamed of being a ringtone?"

We often ask, "Do we have enough humans?" Because it's always fun to come up with an animal in show, but it begins to feel like overkill.