Harold Ramis Quotes

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Harold Ramis

Profession : Actor

Birth : November 21, 1944

We were tremendously encouraged by the testing of Analyze That. Audiences loved it. They were telling us that they liked it as much as the original. We recorded the laughs in the theater.

Harold Ramis

Whenever a critic mentions the salary of an actor, I'm thinking, He's not talking about the movie.

Harold Ramis

With both Caddyshack and Vacation, it's not like the subjects were serious enough that they engaged my interest for another round. I love the characters, and the actors were great, but I didn't see the need to make another Vacation movie.

Harold Ramis

You can't not have feelings about country clubs, whichever side you're on.

Harold Ramis

The best description of the Old Testament that I heard was that it starts out as mythology, then it becomes legend, then it becomes history. In the mythological period - there is a distinct mythological period in the Old Testament, where the time spans are impossible and really just imagined.

Harold Ramis

If the only ideas you had were your own, you'd be very limited.

Harold Ramis

I was raised Jewish and fully embrace the core beliefs of Judaism - the ones that I identify as core beliefs, which are essentially freedom and justice. But the supernatural aspects of religion were never important to me.

Harold Ramis

You probably can't name more than a handful of comedies that would qualify for Best Picture. I can think of a lot of comedy screenplays; Woody Allen has had numerous nominations for his screenplays. But most comedies are calculated. They tend to pander. They're not about anything important.

Harold Ramis

There's a critic that I love, Manohla Dargis of the 'L.A. Weekly.' I like the underground point of view; it's my old radical sympathies. Maybe I like her because she likes my movies.

Harold Ramis

I can't imagine a successful comedy movie without a successful comedy performance at the heart of it.

Harold Ramis

'Analyze This' is a good movie because Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal are really good. But without the material to put on the play, of course, they couldn't be good. For me, it starts with the writing. I always think that the writer is doing the vast majority of the director's work, in a sense.

Harold Ramis

The comic edge of 'Ghostbusters' will always be the same. It's still treating the supernatural with a totally mundane sensibility.

Harold Ramis

I really only worked for about a month on 'Meatballs.' What happened was that Ivan Reitman figured out that studios wanted to meet everybody involved with 'Animal House' except the producer. So he thought he'd better start directing.

Harold Ramis

Everybody has a Bill Murray story. He just punishes people for reasons they can't figure out.

Harold Ramis

There was a moment when we were casting 'Groundhog Day' when Bill Murray was not at the top of my list. He'd been getting crankier and crankier. By the end of 'Ghostbusters II', he was pretty cranky. I thought, 'Do I want to put up with this for twelve weeks?'

Harold Ramis

The simple idiot's advice I give to screenwriters who say they want to sell a screenplay is, 'Write good.'

Harold Ramis

I would remake 'Club Paradise.' I thought the story was cool, the setting was great. Everything lined up, except I wrote it for Bill Murray and John Cleese.

Harold Ramis

Ernie Hudson was new to the comedy world, and being the fourth Ghostbuster, he would have ideas, and he would talk to Ivan Reitman, and Ivan would kind of put him off. I could see how disappointed he was.

Harold Ramis

My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell.

Harold Ramis

I would happily have done any of the 'Bourne Identity' sequels. There are good sequels, but I'm not good at making them.

Harold Ramis