Harold Ramis: I met someone who said they'd figured out my genre: "mad...

My characters aren't losers. They're rebels. They win by their refusal to play by everyone else's rules.

Harold Ramis

winning play character

Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it.

Harold Ramis

get-away stripes

You don't have to know much, just a little bit more than everybody else.

Harold Ramis

bits knows littles

I've tried to stay away from mild satire. I want an audience to feel something more powerful for their ten bucks. If they're going to spend two hours with me, and trust me to lead them around, I'd like to take them someplace special.

Harold Ramis

powerful special two

I always claim that the writer has done 90 percent of the director's work.

Harold Ramis

done claims directors

Find the most talented person in the room and if it's not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. try to be helpful.

Harold Ramis

next trying rooms

Just expressing contempt for your leaders doesn't really accomplish anything.

Harold Ramis

contempt accomplish leader

I think satire is a luxury of literate middle-class people. People who are well fed and relatively secure in their beds can laugh at their troubles. They can enjoy sitcoms. For those who aren't quite so lucky, well, the irony might be lost on them.

Harold Ramis

luxury class thinking

I believe things happen that can't be explained, but so many people seem intent on explaining them. Everyone has an answer for them. Either aliens or things from the spirit world.

Harold Ramis

answers believe people

Well, for me, it's the relationship between comedy and life - that's the edge I live on, and maybe it's my protection against looking at the tragedy of it all. It's seeing life in balance. Comedy and tragedy co-exist. You can't have one without the other. I'm of the school that anything can be funny, if seen from a comedic point of view.

Harold Ramis

balance views school

Nothing reinforces a professional relationship more than enjoying success with someone.

Harold Ramis

professional-relationships enjoy relationship

When you're a big enough part of the process that the Writers Guild gives you a lot of credit, that's a good thing. It tells me that I've had a significant impact on the film as a writer.

Harold Ramis

impact credit giving

Comedy is essentially made by young men, or older men with some form of arrested development, for young men or immature older men.

Harold Ramis

immature comedy men

Life doesn't care about your vision. You just gotta roll with it.

Harold Ramis

knocked-up vision care

How one handles success or failure is determined by their early childhood.

Harold Ramis

childhood determined handle

When I've written for Bill Murray - I've written six films for him - people would read it and say, "Oh, that's so perfectly Bill." He'd read it and say, "Are you kidding? I can't say these words." So it's all about perception.

Harold Ramis

bills perception people

I've been directing for 25 years almost, and I've only directed nine films in that time because I like to be careful.

Harold Ramis

film nine years

I look for the meaning in what's funny, and I look for what's funny about things that are meaningful to me.

Harold Ramis

meaningful looks

Ive never been a big believer in ghosts or the spirit world, and for me, that was part of the point of the movie, ... What the Ghostbusters represented was the triumph of human courage and human ingenuity. People create their own monsters. Our fears come from within us, not outside.

Harold Ramis

triumph monsters people

At a certain point, you have to convince the actors that you've done the right thing. The way I work, if I can't convince them, I've got to move on. I can't coerce them or browbeat them.

Harold Ramis

actors done moving

I met someone who said they'd figured out my genre: "madcap redemption comedy." I'll buy that.