I remember, as a kid, nothing struck me funnier than seeing Richard Nixon look into the camera and sincerely tell everyone he didn't know where the 18 minutes had gone from his tapes. But there was all this sweat on his upper lip. We knew he was lying. He knew we knew he was lying. But he was determined to tell the lie.

Martin Short

Categorized in : Me Look Lie Remember

I pretend I'm one of the royal family when I'm in a hotel and that the hotel belongs to me - it is a palace.

Martin Short

hospitality royal palaces

I've chosen to treat my life more like a party than something to stress about.

Martin Short

stress party life

A musical is only as good as its director. The same can also be said for the CIA.

Martin Short

musical said directors

You try to figure out things to keep yourself interested. It's very easy to get lulled.

Martin Short

figures easy trying

People do think I'm Jewish. But we're Irish Catholic. My father had a brogue.

Martin Short

father people thinking

If you have wonderful moments, don't second-guess them, just enjoy them.

Martin Short

enjoy moments wonderful

I'm totally aware of how lucky I am. I have health, family, children. I do work that gives me total joy and allows me to make a living, and maybe, if I'm lucky enough, I'll feel I've fulfilled a little bit of service to society because I brought other people some laughter.

Martin Short

laughter children people

Someone once asked me what was the weirdest question I was ever asked. And I was stymied.

Martin Short

The thing you can always rely on, your core person, comes from your family's attention and love.

Martin Short

attention-and-love family persons

[Ed Grimley] lives in a retirement home in New Jersey. It's called the Retirement Home in New Jersey for Characters Who Were Interesting in the '80s for About an Hour. He's there with the Whiners, Gumby and Jon Lovitz's 'That's the ticket' guy.

Martin Short

home retirement character

No one is any one thing.

Martin Short

one-thing

I have sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears.

Martin Short

my-own tears sometimes

Comedy is a weird thing. You have to understand, it's the weirdest thing you can do. There's no consensus. It's not like... People say, "I saw Saving Private Ryan, and that scene on the beach is just so moving." I can't imagine anyone who would say "I don't find that moving!" But you can show, whether it's Laurel & Hardy or the Three Stooges or Jiminy Glick In Lalawood, some people are going to look at it and say "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen." Some people will say "I don't get it." Who's right, who's wrong?

Martin Short

beach people moving

The thing in comedy is that once you start worrying about something not succeeding, you're frozen. There's no verdict on anything. You can make ¡Three Amigos!, and some people will at the time say, "Oh, that's too silly." Then five years later, silly is hip. Now it's considered art. I never comment on anything I do, because if I say anything negative about X film, or X TV show, or X project, people who saw it and loved it go, "Well, am I an idiot?"

Martin Short

silly people art

I still do live concerts all over the country - about four a month - with singing and characters and improv. It keeps me limber. I'll never lose that. And comedy is still the bread and butter.

Martin Short

live-concerts character country

When you have to worry about paying the rent, you're never bored. You're just happy to have that job. But once you don't have to worry and reach the point where it's no longer about the money, you're able to look at other opportunities outside of your comfort zone.

Martin Short

worry opportunity jobs

Being the youngest of five, you're adored, you're fueled with confidence.

Martin Short

confidence five

You go through publicists because it's easy for a publicist to say to another publicist, 'No'.

Martin Short

publicists easy

I've never done an improvised movie as a fictitious character. I think that's the challenge.

Martin Short

challenges character thinking

When you start a new project and they say, "Your director is going to be Joe Blo," you're hoping that Joe Blo will be the next Martin Scorsese, but it doesn't always work out that way.

Martin Short

work-out directors way