Top 25 Alan King Quotes

That’s the great thing about New Year‘s, you get to be a year older. For me, that wasn’t such a joke, because my birthday was always around this time. When I was a kid, my father used to tell me that everybody was celebrating my birthday. That’s what the trees are all about.

Comedy is an amazing calling. Once you get that first laugh, it’s hard to turn away. Then, of course, you’re hooked and you have to learn how to survive in the business.

There’s a charm, there’s a rhythm, there’s a soul to Jewish humor. When I first saw Richard Pryor perform, I told him, ‘You’re doing a Jewish act.’

If you stop and think about it, nearly all great humor is at the expense of someone or something.

My mother kept the house clean and we ate good. I didn’t know we were poor until I started giving interviews.

Let’s face it: It’s difficult enough to be funny without worrying about what is going to offend whom.

If you want to read about love and marriage, you’ve got to buy two separate books.

When I was a kid, I used to send away for those ventriloquist kits on the back of comic books.

As you get older, as you become more sensitive, feel more, it becomes harder to make jokes. You censor yourself.

If you keep yourself alive and current, funny is funny.

My brother is the youngest member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. And I wouldn’t let him cut my nails.

Performing is just standing up there and doing something. Performance takes on an edge to it. It has a more dramatic context.

The ability to absorb a book and make someone else‘s words and story your own was exactly was I was doing on stage.

I don’t mind being 65, but nobody is gonna tell me to come in at 5:30 to have the early bird special.

Ed Sullivan brought me to TV first in 1952, then Garry Moore‘s program gave me a lot of confidence and freedom.

I think one of the big things about comedy is the ability for the audience to identify.

My favorite way to spend Saturday is in and out of bed, watching sports on TV and eating.

I won‘t eat in a place that has suits of armor.

My father helped me leave. He said, ‘It’s all out there, it’s not here.’

I just never saw my mother in any other room but the kitchen. There were always pots going.

There’s nobody to believe in anymore, nobody to trust.

As a parent, I’d – I’d be a better father.

Comedy is a reflection. We create nothing. We set no styles, no standards. We’re reflections. It’s a distorted mirror in the fun house. We watch society. As society behaves, then we have the ability to make fun of it.

Banks have a new image. Now you have ‘a friend,’ your friendly banker. If the banks are so friendly, how come they chain down the pens?

And humor has always been a weapon. You want to get even on somebody? You want to attack somebody? Make fun of them.