Bob Newhart Quotes

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Bob Newhart

Profession : Comedian

Birth : September 5, 1929

A lot of money is spent trying to keep people alive who don't necessarily want to be alive.

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

I certainly don't delude myself that there aren't certainly more important things to do in life than make people laugh, but I can't imagine anything that would bring me more joy.

Bob Newhart

Probably the best advice I ever got in my life was from the head of the accounting department, Mr. Hutchinson, I believe at the Glidden Company in Chicago, and he told me, 'You really aren't cut out for accounting.'

Bob Newhart

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

Bob Newhart

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

Bob Newhart

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

Bob Newhart

I always hated when the studios just kind of said that anybody can act. You look at people like Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda - and I'm just talking about the male actors - there aren't a lot who can act. It's a very special talent, and I wish it were recognized as a very special talent.

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

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

The greatest comedian I've ever seen is Jack Benny. He wasn't afraid of the silences.

Bob Newhart

The highest of highs is to have a new routine that you're just breaking in and that's working, and that's - you're one step removed doing a situation comedy because you have a live audience there.

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

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

For some reason, comedians are still children. The social skills somehow never reach us, so we say exactly what we think without weighing the results.

Bob Newhart