Madeline Kahn Quotations

I find being funny very hard work. I am always asked about it, and I feel guilty saying that, but it's the truth. I love my work, but it ain't easy.

From inside where I live, I feel like I just perceive events in a certain rational way. I often find it sad or poignant, and it may not make me laugh a bit. But I don't mind inventing a portrait that allows others to laugh if that's what they want to do.

Laughter is a strange response. I mean, what is it? It's a spasm of some kind! Is that always joy? It's very often discomfort. It's some sort of explosive reaction. It's very complex.

My mother was a Bohemian - in the good sense of the word. A searcher. And she investigated various religions.

It`s acceptable for men to act the fool. When women try, they`re considered aggressive and opinionated.

Fun is carefree. I am not carefree.

In Hollywood I thought I was large and klutzy, like the characters I played,

Comedy is created when someone is trying very earnestly to do what he feels is the right thing to do at that moment.

What's wrong with musicals now is all the gifted men who've died of AIDS-who would otherwise be here today creating great theater.

Ah, but the servant waits, while the master baits.

Me, as myself, I don't think I'm particularly funny. But I've noticed that people in my life always have found me amusing. Which, when I was little, really bothered me.

Comedy is an ability to observe and see what's funny in a situation and be able to forget yourself enough to do it.

If a scene isn't well written they'll drop your neckline to fill the void.

I can't even really tell a joke. I find being funny very hard work. I am always asked about it and I feel guilty saying that, but it's the truth. I love my work but it ain't easy.

Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage!

I don't like to be my own audience, I find that being my own audience, being in the audience, makes me self-conscious, basically. So I tune in sometimes, with the sound off, to check it out and I back up to it. In the future I will look at it when some time has passed.