Edward Norton Quotes

Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say.

Comedy is not something that a person can fake or learn how to do.

If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke.

The kick [of comedy] is to think quickly. It's a great kick.

Being a fan of comedy, it's so unique, in their own voice. I was really stoked to be able to participate. They're so great at just coming up with stuff on the fly and making stuff funny.

People either have comedy or they don't. You can't teach it to them.

I think most of the actors that I know that I think are good are kind of funny people. There's just something about being alive to the truth of a moment that makes a good joke that also makes a good actor.

The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it... try to fake three laughs in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha - they'll take you away, man. You can't.

I never know when I am being funny, and the other way too. I don't think you can think about that. I don't think you can try to be funny. Some people are just funny.

If you think something's funny, go with that. Most comedians pull jokes from a place of honesty.

I think if you're trying to be funny, sometimes you're bending a piece of metal in a direction it doesn't want to go. And sometimes comedy just needs to find itself.

I think comedy's something you can't learn. It's an instinct, which makes it rather elusive.

Good acting is thinking in front of the camera. I just do that and apply a sense of humor to it. You have to trust the audience to get it.

If something strikes me as funny, I'll put it in my performance.

People often ask me how I make things funny. I don't make things funny.

I come from a much freer kind of performance thing, where I rely on my own improv and my own sense of humor.

If you're contriving something, if you're making something up, it's not funny. You can tell. It's instant. It has to come from someplace real.

Erroll Garner is one of the few musicians I believe has a sense of humor in his music.

I don't know if I have actually good comedic timing. But I don't think I've worked at any timing. I think timing is probably something you can't work at. Well, I don't know. I definitely didn't work at it.

I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes.

I believe that comedians do what they do, and then they get credit or criticism for doing it. There's nothing planned about this.

I need to be spontaneous sometimes. Sometimes I find that the little detail or nuance that you add to it that's based on what's happening at the time that's not very rehearsed often ends up feeling like the funniest thing.

I really learned how to improvise at the Groundlings.It's something I've always loved to do. For some reason it feels more honest at times.

You're always on duty because you're in a constant state of observation. That's one of the challenges of being a comedian. I think one of the other challenges is that, whether we like it or not, it's a profession that requires failure. It doesn't just encourage failure. It requires it because it's all trial and error. You need to know what doesn't work to know what works.

The best way to do comedy is to not filter yourself, and then you could always fix it later. You want to be able to push the envelope.