S. J. Perelman Quotes

They're called 'angels' because they're in heaven until the reviews come out.

I moved to LA and decided to do films and television, mainly because the theater in New York is totally dead.

Two of the cruelest, most primitive punishments our town deals out to those who fall from favor are the empty mailbox and the silent telephone.

Praise the Lord, but do me a favor, don't ever say 'Stephen Baldwin' and 'ministry' in the same sentence. I make movies, and in Hollywood, that's career suicide.

In Hollywood, whenever you do anything, it seems like there's going to be 30 of them. When I did 'Look Who's Talking,' people went: 'Oh but there's going to be this baby movie and that baby movie.' I can't worry about that. I can only do what I want to do.

It's always really special to be at the New York Film Festival, and always a real privilege.

Even when I'm alone, my life revolves around film. I think that's why I live in New York, not L.A., where it's so concentrated.

When I went back to New York with somewhat of a name, they didn't want movie actresses.

I haven't read a review of one of my films for the best part of 10 years.

I only made two studio movies, that was a long time ago and obviously I removed myself. I think some of that is geographical. I live in New York and I want to work there, it's as simple as that.

As FIFA leaked information to the media, portraying me as an unethical person, I felt I was left naked, helpless to defend myself, as they repeatedly cut me with a sharp knife.

Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.

Gradually the live TV scene simmered out, replaced by film, and that took place in L.A. So many actors left New York.

Nobody in Hollywood ever sets out to make a bad movie ever but about 99% of the time, that's what happens.

Anytime you put a movie out it's subject to such scrutiny and such criticism.

They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week.

Because I direct films, I have to live in a major English-speaking production center. That narrows it down to three places: Los Angeles, New York and London. I like New York, but it's inferior to London as a production center. Hollywood is best, but I don't like living there.

I left my career in Hollywood, moved back to New York, and went to Lee Strasberg and studied with him for the rest of his life.

I've been blacklisted in Hollywood.

If you're an actor from New York, and you're Italian-American, you grow up hoping Marty Scorsese knows your name at some point before you die.

Once your network has lost confidence in you, you're headed for the dustbin of history.

If my films don't do well, nobody is going to give me films.

Director Baz Luhrmann flew me to New York to read for 'Moulin Rouge!' Maybe I was a little blase about it.

You have to understand, when you're 15 and you're doing this Steven Spielberg movie with megastars - Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts - you know you want to be cool. I don't know how cool I'm going to look with my belly button out!

If a man's reputation can be destroyed in an afternoon by a secret kangaroo court, then we, too, can one day be propelled into a pit of everlasting shame by the same process.