Michael McKean Quotations

One piece that looked like it was doomed - we were going to shoot it in this hotel hallway, and it was just my character musing that maybe this was just the beginning of something, maybe we were on our way out of obscurity or something, and then we were setting up to do it - and we just had to get this other shot.

I don't know whether the result is substantially different, but it feels a little different. I think the only song that I wrote all by myself in this is a tune called ""Killington Hill,"" which is not in the film but it's on the DVD.

Part of it is what it's always been -- the vicarious thrill of seeing people who are much richer and more famous live lives that are wonderful, even if they are complete fakes. I think people simultaneously worship and despise celebrities.

I was there to be kind of the adult - to be David Spade's dad. Which was okay, and I got to do a few things. I was on 26 shows and I managed to get 20 sketches on - either as sole writer or co-writer. So I can't say that I was completely miserable.

Well, it's that everyone's got all these sketches, and there are ways other than quality to get them on. You know?

You know, I think it's one of those cases where the situation really does dictate your level of ridicule.

Eugene Levy came into the office with "A Mighty Wind" - that song - with the lyric complete, but the melody wasn't quite there yet, and he and Chris and I worked on the tune - and that's how that one became a three-person song rather than a one-person song. It's a different process every time.

Eugene Levy came into the office with ""A Mighty Wind"" - that song - with the lyric complete, but the melody wasn't quite there yet, and he and Chris and I worked on the tune - and that's how that one became a three-person song rather than a one-person song. It's a different process every time.

The whole process was just so much fun. Also, watching people who weren't primarily instrumentalists - watching them pick up instruments... Parker Posey never played the mandolin before.

Sometimes we have to look to other performers to kind of spark us, but there is something kind of ""old home week"" about us. So I've never really felt the battery run down on these shows.

As far as directing, yeah, I'd like to do that. But you've got to spend at least a year, year-and-a-half doing that. It's got to be something you really love. To direct a sequel to somebody else's work is not interesting to me. To do a teen comedy, I don't think is really something I'd want to spend a year of my life doing at this point.

They were kind of like little Stephen King stories... but these go back many hundreds of years.

I'm not channeling anyone in particular, ... I just imagine myself living a life that I never live. I don't have the executive gene.

I made some friends who are still friends, and this is the city of my birth. I love living here when there's a reason to, other than just moving here. I still don't like the winters here, but it's an amazing city and I love it.

He asked us to write a song. We went home, and we were out walking the dog and started playing with lyrics and melody. Annette has a wonderful ear for music. She kind of started out in musical comedy, and she's always been a singer and dancer - but she's never been a songwriter before, but she just has a great natural sense of what sounds good.

I think a band that doesn't have a sense of humor can come up with their own take on whimsy.Kind of lead-footed and ham-handed, but I think just all the better for that.

I never regret anything and I don't believe in regret. I think it's just a big time-waster.

The process depends on the situation, and I don't think there are any two songs that have gone exactly the same way... well, actually, that's not true.

There are people in the world who won't watch a movie that's in black and white. There's got to be a special place in hell for them.

I'm all over the place. As you may have seen from the credits, I write with everybody.

Sometimes we drop in and do an acoustic set somewhere, and that's really fun to take all these insanely loud songs, and to do them quiet. It's really a sight to see... or to hear!

When we can figure out a way to really tour and make a profit, then we'll do it again.

As an actor, you have to be able to take all sides as well. You have to at least be able to understand things. No bad guy looks in the mirror every morning and says, boy, I'm gonna be a real bad guy this morning. He goes after his own what he's after, just like us good guys. You kind of have to take a stand and, a lot of times, you have to take the writer's stand or the stand of the character this writer has created.

Some people stay in the academic world just to avoid becoming self-aware. You can quote me on that.

I think you have everyone kind of pulling on the same end of the rope. It's not like you're Robin Williams and everyone else is a deaf mute. It's like - there's plenty of help.

I'm kind of the town pump. I think I have a pretty good ear for what sounds good in this style.

Those people that you know for a long time and that you love, they're the easiest to talk to.

That's a job that it makes a few friendships, but it probably breaks more.

It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.

Even when there are banalities, they're usually kind of benign banalities.