Malcolm D. Lee Quotes

In terms of television and movies, I've been really interested in seeing the partnership of comedy and beauty and heart. I think they can go together really well and really thoughtfully. But, I'm a total one-hour drama addict. I think when you're a comedian, you tend towards dramas because that's the less stressful thing to watch.

I've always said people say on a dramatic show, 'I was crying. It was so emotional when he went and grabbed that little girl from a burning building and handed her over to her mother.' In comedy, the best thing you can say is, 'I think it's funny.'

I really think if you take away a character's obstacles then there's no comedy.

I never understand when people say, 'Do you do comedy or tragedy?' I don't think they're very much different. They both have to be true, and there isn't a great play in the world that doesn't have funny parts to it - as 'Salesman' does, as 'King Lear' does. The whole idea is to reflect life in some way, which means surely you have to have both.

'Hill Street,' because of the wacky nature of many of our characters, really allowed us to indulge a kind of cheek-to-jowl juxtaposition of high drama with very low humor.

When I was a playwright earlier in my career - my senior project in high school was my first produced play - I used to put on the title page: 'A tragedy with laughs.'

Tension is all about, 'Why is this taking so long?' The interesting thing about that is that it's also the tension of comedy. The tension of drama and comedy is similar, and that's why usually you can get a big laugh in a really tense moment because people need that release.

Dramas are incredibly compelling. I feel like 'Silver Linings Playbook' is a drama, but because it's funny, people market it as a comedy.

I actually feel that all drama has an element of comedy in it. A great deal of that I learned from writers like Chekhov who called his plays his comedy even when they touch on tragedy.

That's the best advice I can give - when you're trying to write a comedy, first write a drama, and then make it funny.

For me, the ideal job as an actor would be something that is intrinsically a drama but to which I could bring in as much humor as possible.

I love comedy. It's something that I think Marvel does so well, and it's one of the reasons I love Marvel so much is the quips that you get: that kind of underlying everything and cutting through the very heavy emotional stuff.

You have more of a responsibility to make the audience laugh. In comedy, we do have to say, "All right, it's been two minutes in the film. We need another laugh here." With drama, there's no pressure in that regard. It's a different kind of pressure, but it's not like we need to make someone laugh.

As comedy presents the vital rhythm of self-preservation, tragedy exhibits that of self-consummation.

I've always thought that comedy was just another dramatic expression.

I like films that are so funny, dramatic and lifelike simultaneously, that you are laughing and cringing simultaneously all throughout the film.

Comedy is tragedy revisited.

I think it would be exhausting and depressing, to write, to watch and to live, if it was just focused on drama. It's heavy. Also, I think the humor really highlights the pathos and the struggle. You can slam it up against drama, and it makes both shine.

I feel like with comedy, the crazy things that happen are never serious you know? Like, rubble being poured onto you in drama would be something that's absolutely terrible, but in a comedy it's absolutely terrible but so funny.

It's a very important skill set for an actor to be able to bring the humor into any moment, whether you're doing drama or comedy.

Laughter is the representative of Tragedy, when Tragedy is away.

I find things funny that aren't self-aware. That don't know they're funny, and I think the same can hold true for drama. If you think you're in this tragedy and you play it for tragedy, there's a self-awareness there that I think takes you out of watching it and I believe it cuts both ways.

Comedy defends the commonplace; tragedy explodes it.

Well, Jen and Josh are the two funniest people on set. They're absolutely insane. If you put them together, it's just a disaster, But, I mean, it's so much fun! They're both probably the funniest people on set.

I love comedy, because I like making fun of things even though they are dramatic.