Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

by Steve Martin

If light is thrown on the audience, they don’t laugh;

Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.

Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.

Everything was dragging me toward the arts; even the study of modern philosophy suggested that philosophy was nonsense.

Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening.

I believed it was important to be funny now, while the audience was watching, but it was also important to be funny later, when the audience was home and thinking about it.

The implied power of the headliner cannot be challenged by a pleasant opening act.

The more physically uncomfortable the audience, the bigger the laughs.