Dana Carvey Quotes

Bad people doing bad things is not interesting. What I find interesting is good people doing bad things.

Whether it's corporate investigations or comedy, there are certain inherent truths to trying to get what you want while trying to be a decent person doing it.

I've always done just pretty much what I wanted to do. I mean, I just did a thing for a small press called 'Zeppelins West' that's nothing but an absolute, over-the-top farce, almost like an Abbott & Costello, alternate-universe Western.

Gee, I wish that life were so black and white that you can't think of a single person who, you know, a good person who has done bad things.

As a writer, I think the greatest danger would be self-censorship.

I don't like seeing talented storytellers ruled by fear.

Growing up, I was always enthralled by Ronnie Barker. He made my dad howl with laughter, which always intrigued me, and he had the rare gift of being as good a performer as he was a writer.

When you talk about a character on a situation comedy, it's not just the actor. It's the writers, too.

Working in network sitcom arenas, whenever you decide to depart from the norm and tell a story that's not typical, I think you're always a little bit nervous.

It's tough to do comedy. After 'Mister', my inhibitions with respect to comedy have come down.

The joys of making a comedy are that it feels very playful and silly, and the energy is totally different because they want you to feel free enough to come out with something a bit mad.

Every nation necessarily inhabits a morally compromised space. All too often our ideals seem to be held to ransom by what we believe, rightly or wrongly, to be objective reality.

The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule , between good and evil but between two evils. You can let the Nazis rule the world : that is evil; or you can overthrow them by war , which is also evil. There is no other choice before you, and whichever you choose you will not come out with clean hands.

What's stronger-the need to uphold the law, or the motive to turn one's back on it?

I've learned to have absolutely no regrets about any jokes I've ever done. You can tune me out, you can click me off, it's OK. I am not going to bow to political correctness.

I am doing the right thing, he told himself, so why do I feel so bad?

I'm really attracted to authors who take on really tricky material with a very open mind and take a subject matter that you wouldn't think would be a comedy.

Her lord father had taught her never to steal, but it was growing harder to remember why.

In trying to avoid one sin I've committed another.

Writers do the self-censoring before they even get to the studio executive, because they know the film will not run that gauntlet. They, because they want to get their films made, they censor it.

She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.

But people do things to survive, and then after they survive, they can't live with what they've done.

Our dreams of a pure virtue are dissolved in a situation in which it is possible to exercise the virtue of responsibility toward a community of nations only by courting the prospective guilt of the atomic bomb.

In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both.

Unfortunately sometimes one can't do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy.