Penn Jillette Quotes

Any comic like myself owes everything he has to Lenny Bruce. He was the originator. The godfather of uncensored American stand-up is clearly Lenny Bruce.

If you listen to Howard Stern, go back and listen to Lenny Bruce, so you can hear what real talent is.

I loved reading when the critics in New York would say that some of my films reminded them of Lenny Bruce.

It never hurt Lenny Bruce's career to get arrested for swearing. It did back in the time, but he broke those doors down by doing the stuff that he believed in.

Bill Maher fancies himself the reincarnation of Lenny Bruce.

I don't have an act. I just talk. I'm just Lenny Bruce.

I'd heard that Lenny Bruce used a lot of profanity and obscenities in his act, and I was curious.

I mean, I was always interested in people like Lenny Bruce, people who are breaking the old rules and making new ones.

In my opinion, Lenny Bruce was more of an influence on Zappa's satirical lyric's than anyone that I know of.

I also love the makers of South Park, because they're political, strong, and they're making all of these comments that would get you shot for if you did it in a drama.

I was also a big Woody Allen fan. When I got into college I listened to Lenny Bruce but it's taken me years to put him into context historically and really get what he did.

I think satire suffered under Obama, but not because of Obama. People are more sensitive now than ever, and strong satirical voices are stifled because of that. I don't think a Clinton presidency would change that.

Music can't change the world.

Art is not meant to change the world.

But the only comparison that I want to Lenny Bruce is that I'm funny. I'm Freddie Prinze, Puerto Rican all the way.

We (actors) don't really change the world. We reflect it... but Washington really changes the world.

I just have my characters say my controversial opinions and then hide behind them.

And realising that humour is the most powerful way to make a political statement and say the things that you want to say. And it's not used enough, at least not in the U.S.

Lenny Bruce is a very moral man trying to improve the world and trying to make audiences think.

I think back to some of the things Harry said and some of the things I said trying to be funny. If I said them now, it would be on the front page of every newspaper in the country.

I've done Graham Norton's show three times now. He tackles taboos and subject matter that wouldn't make it past the censors in the States.

Stand-up comedy and comedy in general is the ultimate form of free speech, because you get to poke holes in all the pretentious bubbles politicians and pundits and popes and pretenders try to float over our heads.

I see history as really cyclical in terms of the intense idealism, and the desire to create a better life outside of societal norms.

'Dreamers' was because I really wanted to go back after I heard so much nonsense about '68. I wanted to go back to what for me was '68, when young people thought that they could change the world.

When I was 16 or 17, I saw Lenny Bruce being taken to jail. They took him off stage because he talked about race.