Peter Mayhew Quotes

I think I learned everything about comedy and timing and drama from watching 'The Muppet Show,' which was one of the best shows ever produced.

I always wanted to be a Muppet.

I always have a rough outline, but I'm shocked at how little I actually follow it. Those characters keep doing things that I never expected. I think if I crept up to my keyboard and peeked, they'd be talking about things behind my back. Okay, that's a little paranoid and delusional... but just a little.

The 'Muppets' were a very big part of my childhood, and 'Flight of the Conchords' definitely has elements of the 'Muppets' in it, specifically the way we mixed music and comedy.

As an actor, our very palette is one of imagination. So it is a walk onto an empty space and then imagine the world beyond it is what we do.

I've just grown a little disappointed with 'Muppets in the Old West', 'Muppets Under Water' and all these weird concept movies. I just want to go take it back to the early 80's, when it was about the Muppets trying to put on a show. That's what I'm trying to bring back.

I prefer to surprise myself as I'm writing. I'm not interested in it if I already know where it's going. So I have only the most general sense of what I'm doing when I start a story. I sometimes have a destination in mind, but how the story is going to go from Point A to Point Z is something I make up as I go along.

You can exaggerate with puppets. You're not trying to look like real people. The way the Muppets are designed is really appealing. Puppets are best if they're exaggerated creatures.

I never make notes; just a few small details when I'm writing, but nothing much. The plot is never written down. I will tell the story to myself, but I won't plan it. I'll speak the narrative in my head for a while.

I'm in showbusiness. I'm an entertainer.

I'm really quite bad at coming up with plot ideas. I like to create characters and just see what will happen to them when I let them loose!

It's not so much that I got that idea at some point, it came up naturally because of the improvisational nature of the story I was telling.

It's so cliche, but I love the feeling you get from improv that anything can happen. The audience is already accepting that there are no props or costumes or furniture, so the performers can be anywhere doing anything; cut from underground to space, and it doesn't matter.

I start with a character and a situation, but I don't know what's going to happen until I write it. Sometimes things happen that surprise me.

Actors are such wonderful creatures and such wonderful instruments. It's always different on the page or in my head. I hear it differently. I see it differently. And then, you give it to an actor, and it comes alive in a way that you didn't expect.

For me, that is the craft of acting: literally creating something from nothing.

I didn't even know what a horror film was. I kind of made it up as I went along.

I usually hold a puppet and play with different voices until something happens and the right voice just hits me. Then, I'll pick a name that just seems to fit the character that naturally comes out.

I always say I owe my sense of humor to 'The Muppets' because I didn't necessarily know what was going on when I watched 'The Muppet Show,' and obviously, 'Sesame Street' was made just for me.

I love telling stories. I don't really think in terms of clear 'aims.'

'The Muppet Show' was huge. I watched it all the time as a kid, and I really loved the way they used music on that. I also remember hearing the radio in the car as a kid, like Stevie Wonder and Simon and Garfunkel.

It would be quite interesting to use Kermit the Frog to act like a real frog. But it wouldn't produce captivating theatre.

I've always liked the Muppets. I watched 'The Muppet Show' in England every week as a child. The show was originally broadcast in England.

I know feeling pressure gets you nowhere creatively. You've just got to understand the character, understand the story, and just play it to the fullest extent.

One never can plan. I just did my work and enjoyed shooting for all my films.