Steve Carell Quotes

I always feel so pretentious talking about comedy and deconstructing it. It always feels somehow self-centred to talk about any sort of process.

I don't think of any sentence as a "one-liner", but I do pay attention to how people actually speak when they are being funny. Rhythm is key.

People always say, "When did you know you were funny?" They don't mean that in a bad way - this already makes me sound like such a jerk.

People tell me it's a sin, to know and feel too much within.

People always ask me, Do you ever think you'll wake up one morning and not be funny? That thought would never occur to me--it's an odd thought and not realistic. Because funny and me are not separate. We're one.

Comedy should never be over-analysed. It's either funny or it isn't. There's a subtle difference between those who say funny things and those who say things funny.

When I say something funny, I don’t laugh, so my friends are always like, ‘Hahahahaaaa!’ so people know. When I’m not with them, I always think, This person doesn’t know I’m funny; they just think I’m a jerk.

When you start explaining why something's funny or finding a formula for it I think it loses some of its funniness.

These days, people spent too much time striving to understand their feelings - and then ended up with none that were genuine.

I was always sort of a ham as a kid, just always wanting to entertain and to get people to laugh.

When you're doing comedy, you're not trying to be funny. I think things are funny when the character is taking it totally seriously. I think when people are winking, it becomes slapstick, it becomes something else.

I find anger to be funny. I find people that are so wrapped up in their own personalities to be funny, and lost. Like myself in real life.

I knew I wanted to be in show business so I took the path of least resistance. I loved comedy. But you never know you are funny until people laugh. It's just what I was interested in. I could make people laugh, I guess, but doing it at school and doing it onstage are very different things.

I think the second you think that you're funny is when you stop being funny.

Well, there's no other person like me. Ain't nobody else like me. It's flattering. I don't like to do it too much because I get tired of me. But people ask, so I get to do it every now and then.

The truth is, I've denied it for years, but I love deconstructing comedy.

Most people are doing the best they can, given what they know and understand, including you. If they knew more and were aware of more, they would do things differently.

There's such a gulf between yourself and who you were then, but people speak to that other person and it answers; it's like having a stranger as a house guest in your skin.

I laugh at people who say things like 'I'm a good person, I just do bad things.' No, that's not how it works. What you do IS who you are.

I have seen that every one forgives much in themselves that they find unpardonable in other people.

For young people, if someone tells you: you are the future - say No! I'm the present. You have things to do right now.

The most difficult thing for people to do is hear their own soul.

Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.

Whatever it is, people have issues and that affects you deeply. So you have to get to the bottom of it and not let that affect your life decisions and really understand why you're making the decisions you make so that way you can understand how to not do that, so I always encourage people to ask why and then to really understand you, because that's the only way to be your most successful and your most happy.

Musicians, actors, writers - we're all neurotic, odd people who've lucked into accidental careers. So I just don't like being around public figures with that sense of entitlement, it just seems unhealthy, and it strips so much potential for them to develop as a human being.