The first thing you've got to do is know your craft, and then you can do something else with it. Harry Shearer More Quotes by Harry Shearer More Quotes From Harry Shearer If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? Harry Shearer political power doe The hardest work most of us do is maintaining the appearance of normality. Harry Shearer maintaining hardest appearance I am one of those people who thrive on deadlines. Nothing brings on inspiration more readily than desperation. Harry Shearer desperation inspiration people When Nixon died, on my radio show I started doing sketches with three basic conceits: One, there's a place called Heaven. Two, Nixon got in. And three, he's still taping. Harry Shearer three heaven two Democrats always like to brag that their guys are smarter than the opponents and Republicans always like to brag that their guys are more moral than the opponents. But if you're looking for morals in politics you're looking for bananas in the cheese department. Harry Shearer cheesy politics guy I would come back to public school for usually about half the year. It was actually better for me to be out of school a lot, because I was two years younger than everybody, which is a bad situation, socially. Harry Shearer two years school Because I don't do stand-up, radio has always been my equivalent, a place to stay in connection with the public and force myself to write every week and come up with new characters. Plus it's a medium that – having grown up with it and putting myself to sleep with a radio under my pillow [as a kid] – I love. No matter what picture you want to create in the listener's mind, a few minutes of work gets it done. Harry Shearer sleep writing kids If Nixon were a Republican senator today, he would have been primaried out. Harry Shearer senators republican today When it moved to Friday night it disappeared, when they find another show that can do what The Simpsons does, they will be delighted to do cancel The Simpsons. Harry Shearer friday doe night I didn't have a lot of independent film connections. It really took until the digital film revolution came along that I realized that I could do it myself. Harry Shearer digital connections independent My parents didn't want me to be a regular in a series. I was a working actor from time to time but they thought was a little too much being a star of a series. They wanted me to have a slightly more normal childhood. Harry Shearer childhood stars parent I think in most cases, if you're with good people, comedy creation happens faster in collaboration. That's how I can tell if it's a good collaboration: If it's faster than me by myself, then it works. If it's slower than me by myself, then I get out of the room. Harry Shearer collaboration people thinking In the year and a half I was on SNL, I never saw anybody ad lib anything. For a very good reason - the director cut according to the script. So, if you ad libbed, you'd be off mike and off camera. Harry Shearer cameras cutting years I went to graduate school at Harvard for one year I worked in the state legislature in Sacramento for one year. I taught school in Compton for two years. Harry Shearer two years school Well Washington DC what are you going to do. They think the capitol steps are the state of the art in comedy. You try to drag them into the 20th century let alone the 21st and they refuse to come with you. Harry Shearer trying art thinking I'm not sure that there's anybody else that's as psychologically complex and who's given us this window into his soul that Nixon gave us. That's what I find absolutely addictive and seductive. Harry Shearer seductive soul window The act of getting married, stripped of the necessity to have a secure setting to raise children, seems to me no less grim than registering your emotions with the government. Harry Shearer emotion government children [The word class has] been excised from the acceptable political vocabulary, except in the limited usage of right-wingers when they accuse liberals of inciting 'class warfare' - a charge that means it's okay for rich people to vote their economic interests but it's not all right to encourage poor people to do so. Harry Shearer vocabulary class mean I was a Political Science major. Harry Shearer political-science political science Nixon's genius was that he was able to portray himself as the toughest of the anti-communists, and yet run on a platform that he had a plan to end the Vietnam War. And, of course, his plan was to prolong it until his second election - but he didn't tell us that then. Harry Shearer able running war
