Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Melvin James Brooksis an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, composer, songwriter and veteran. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows. He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner in the comedy skit, The 2000 Year Old Man. He also created, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series, Get Smart,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth28 June 1926
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Being brave is being scared and worried and still doing it [what you do]. Because if you're just a wacko, a mashugana, a crazy guy, then you're not brave, your nuts!
The final test of fame is to have a crazy person imagine he is you.
Let's have a merry journey, and shout about how light is good and dark is not. What we should do is not future ourselves so much. We should now ourselves. "Now thyself" is more important than "know thyself." Reason is what tells us to ignore the present and live in the future. So all we do is make plans. We think that somewhere there are going to be green pastures. It's crazy. Heaven is nothing but a grand, monumental instance of future. Listen, now is good. Now is wonderful.
Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable. So for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast-beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one.
I kept leaning on him and I finally said, 'Mel, this isn't fair.' So I asked him to come on board as a co-writer with credit. And he was happy to do it.
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.
There's no lightning. There's blood, sweat and tears. There's a good idea and there's 18 months of due diligence, hard work, day and night.
On directing movies: anybody can direct. There are only 11 good write
Anybody can direct. There are only 11 good writers.
I've never been happier than when I was writing the musical score of The Producers. One song after another tumbled out of my head in what was the most soul-satisfying experience of my career. And in my less than humble opinion, I must say that it turned out to be surprisingly good.
I was going to do the book and the music and the lyrics,
I wouldn't have done this show without Nathan Lane, because he's God's gift to Broadway, ... And Matthew's a surprising find -- I didn't know he could sing and dance.
It's always been a love letter to Broadway, and now its time has come,
When we did 'Young Frankenstein,' we knew we could get the college crowd. They loved the Mary Shelley novel. If you didn't get the references, you couldn't enjoy my movies.