Classic Television Quotes

If you don't know what to do, don't do anything. ~ Desi Arnaz

decade after the first edition of this book was published, Yan Wong and I met in the fitting surroundings of the Oxford Museum of Natural History to discuss the possibility of producing a new, tenth anniversary edition. Yan, once my undergraduate pupil, had been employed as my research assistant during the writing of the original edition, before he left for his lecturing position in Leeds and his career as a television presenter. He played an enormously important part in the conception and execution of the first edition, and he was credited as joint author of several of the chapters. During the course of our discussion ten years on, we realised that much new information had come in, especially from the molecular genetics laboratories of the world. Yan undertook the bulk of the revision and I proposed to the publisher that this time he should be properly credited as joint author of the whole book. ~ Richard Dawkins

Oh, the English! They are always thinking of tea. They carry it by the kilogram, and they are so clumsy that they always pack it at the top. ~ E. M. Forster

Killing characters on television has become an easy short cut to cathartic emotion. ~ Nic Pizzolatto

I've been very lucky to work on a wide variety of projects, including two long-run and top-10 dramatic television shows. That is why it is so important to offer a helping hand to the next generation of young Latinos coming up behind me. ~ Jimmy Smits

Television is a real woman's medium ... but what's disturbing is, still even in television, women have so little to do with what's going on behind the scenes. ~ Patricia Richardson

I sometimes call my new system 'Italian pagan Catholicism,' but it could more accurately be called 'pragmatic liberalism,' with roots in Enlightenment political philosophy. It is a synthesis of the enduring dual elements in our culture, pagan and Judeo-Christian, Romantic and Classic. ~ Camille Paglia

There's no mistaking the fact that some of the best longform fiction out there now is in American television. 'The Wire' and 'Deadwood' and 'The Sopranos.' ~ Kevin Barry

We have become a more juvenile culture. We have become a childish "me, me, me" culture with fifteen-second attention spans. The global village that television was supposed to bring is less a village than a playground ...
Little attempt is made to pass on our cultural inheritance, and our moral and religious traditions are neglected except in the shallow "family values" arguments. ~ Wes Jackson

My activism really is for myself, because I see places in the world where I feel I should be. If there is something really bad, really evil, happening somewhere, then that is where I should be. I need, for myself, to feel that I have stood there. It feels a lot better than just watching it on television. ~ Alice Walker

The demand for standup in the eighties was created by how easy it was to exploit 'comedians' and create very cheap television programming. ~ Marc Maron

The village was shutting its eyes. Candles and lamps were being put out everywhere: she could inwardly behold the extinguisher and the extended hand. ~ Thomas Hardy

I do miss sometimes being onstage, because when I do film and television, it's usually so brief and funny. ~ John Michael Higgins

But television affords you, what you just described, to - over the course of 18 hours, now that we're doing a third season - tell the story of this man. You're not under any obligation, really, to do massive expositional stuff at the beginning. You're at liberty to say, "Come with us on this journey," and, gradually, you become aware of what his motivations are, what drives him, what his weaknesses are, what his strengths are. That's what I think's sucking people into these worlds, because it is kind of like a novel, you just go really, really deep. ~ Cillian Murphy

I've worked in television all my life, but really I've always wanted to work in the movies. ~ E.L. James

Some comedians will tour and do these classic bits all the time. But now with YouTube and Comedy Central, people see your stuff, and they don't want to hear you do that again. ~ Aziz Ansari

Women's stories are valid, and they need to be developed in a way that appeals to a broader audience. And what is 'women's television' other than TV that women would enjoy watching? ~ Christina Cox

Billy [Ray] is a preternatural enthusiast. He would say things to me like, "Now, let me tell you about Episode 3." I'm a big superstitious, having done television for quite some time, and I would say, "Billy, I can't wait to hear about it, but let's just stay here for right now, see what happens, and enjoy this moment. ~ Matt Bomer

What if I like watching television? What if I don't want to do much else other than read a book? ... What if I'm tired when I get home? What if I don't fill my days with frenetic activity?"
"But one day you might wish you had ~ Jojo Moyes

We live in a world where finding fault in others seems to be the favorite blood sport. It has long been the basis of political campaign strategy. It is the theme of much television programming across the world. It sells newspapers. Whenever we meet anyone, our first, almost unconscious reaction may be to look for imperfections. ~ Henry B. Eyring

I used to write stories a lot because you had to fill your hours some other way than watching television. So my imagination was vivid, and I used to write a lot of stories. I wrote a novel, which I still have, which is so awful. ~ Robert Osborne

The best thing ever done is just to sit on my computer and to watch there television, I decide when to stop and when to start. I decide what to be and what not to be. ~ Deyth Banger

Television is certainly a writers-led medium. They're the ones who are there, they're the ones that are conferencing or whatever, with directors coming and going. ~ Brian Baumgartner

There are two things you never turn down: sex and appearing on television. ~ Gore Vidal

[Into the Badlands] wasn't going to be two days of a splinter unit at the end of the shoot. The action and the martial arts had to be integral to the show. That's what makes it unique, that's what makes it special and different and ground-breaking. No one has attempted this before on American television. ~ Miles Millar

When life gives you lemons ... they could really be oranges. ~ Ellen DeGeneres

One result of this productive system is that the middle class has grown from being about 15 percent of the population in 1920 to being 86 percent of the population in 2011. While some of the population always seem to live at the poverty line, the vast majority of Americans today are affluent compared to their grandparents. They have the money to buy the products produced by American industry. In the process, the definition of poverty has changed. The majority of Americans who are classified by the government as living at the poverty level have indoor plumbing, color television sets, cell phones, air-conditioning, washers and dryers, microwaves, automobiles, and access to free health care. They are also a significant buying group. ~ Arthur Hughes

Our television program airs to a potential audience of over 3 billion people, in many places where the people living there may have never even heard of Jesus. ~ Joyce Meyer

It is not true that the world hates America. It is the world's Left that hates America. However, because the Left dominates the world's news media and because nearly everyone, understandably, relies on the news media for their understanding of what happens in the world, many people, including Americans, believe that 'the world' hates America. And, of course, the Left-dominated media help to create much of the hatred for America that does exist. If I relied exclusively on the New York Times or Le Monde or the Guardian or CNN International or virtually any of the world's major television and radio news stations and newspapers for all I knew about America, I would probably hold it in contempt as well. ~ Dennis Prager

One of the biggest challenges in the past for me in working on the networks was that audiences have grown accustomed to television being something that keeps you company-background music, something that you have on while you're flipping through a magazine, cooking dinner, talking on the phone, putting the kids to bed. ~ Aaron Sorkin

You don't know fear until it's 7 A.M. and freezing cold on live television, and you're not sure if Justin Bieber is going to kiss you or not. ~ Halsey

Movies, particularly the big hit movies, are all just special effects. But on television, the writers are in control of the shows, and they control the scripts. ~ Larry Cohen

In a chapter of the Internal Medicine Classic entitled 'The Oldest Truth', it is written: 'When one empties the mind and frees it of all desires, the genuine energy arises. If one maintains an undisturbed spirit within, no disease will occur. ~ Daniel Reid

Then you have this other phenomena of the paranormal romance. It's all the benefits of being a vampire without the sacrifices. By the gods, Meyer's vampires walk around sparkling in the daylight and some are vegetarians. But this phenomenon is also tied to a lot of our communal fears. Fear of aging. Fear of fading youth. Fear of loneliness. But whereas the classic motifs are more concerned with confronting and overcoming our fears, the fears of the paranormal romance genre become twisted fantasies of denial. The idea of staying young, attractive and powerful for eternity feeds into the modern self-absorbed ethos. ~ Julie Ann Dawson

Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There's a lot they didn't know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they'd draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won't hack it. ~ Ross Perot

One can watch hours and hours of TV without actually losing interest, but, as with Chinese food, one is rarely left with much residue of nourishment. ~ Frederic Raphael

We do hear perhaps too many accolades generally aimed at people like Steve Jobs. We have to remember that there are other classic things in life that we undervalue and take them for granted. If you think of the classic lines of the modern jet aircraft, it's really been there since early World War II. ~ Ian Anderson

I cannot tell you how many quiet mornings I have spent sitting around hotel rooms and furnished apartments in the United States and Mexico, smoking cigarettes, plunking the guitar, and watching Perry Mason
telling myself, Well, at least I don't have a day job. And there is nothing wrong with that. I am not guilty of anything. Perry would see that in a minute. ~ Dave Hickey

There is a trend in the whole [U.S.] culture toward making things shorter. People have been watching too much television, and they have a television mentality. I think people really are wary of sitting in a theatre too long. They're not used to it. ~ Rocco Landesman

Some people prefer to see the game in the television than to go to the stadium. With virtual reality this will go to be worse, but at the end the "real" reality will win, because a virtual meal is not the same thing as a real one! ~ Rodolfo Llinas

Six men control almost all the media in the United States--book publishing, magazines, television, movie studios, newspapers, and radio. They are not friendly toward feminism, which has almost disappeared from the surface of our society. You will almost never see a feminist column on an op-ed page, a feminist article in a magazine, or newspaper, actual (not satirized) feminist ideas on television or in the movies. Only magazines & radio controlled by feminists--and these are few and not well-funded--offer information on the feminist perspective.

This might be understandable if feminism were a wild-eyed manic philosophy. But it is a belief, a politics, based on one simple fact: women are human beings who matter as much as men. That is all that feminism claims. As human beings, women have the right to control their own bodies, to walk freely in the world, to train their minds and bodies, and to love and hate at will. Only those who wish to continue to coerce women into a servant/slave class for men cannot accept this principle. ~ Marilyn French

If you're doing television, you get to be a character for a long time, and the cast around you becomes like family. You get attached to playing that one character, and it's hard leaving them behind. ~ Sammi Hanratty

Television cannot film corruption. Television cannot spend five days on a rattling railway train, talking endlessly. Television needs excitement, it needs an angle, it needs a 'sound bite. ~ Paul Theroux

No, Dan."

"And you want me to go."

I looked into his eyes. "No. I don't."

He moved closer, encouraged, and put his hand on my shoulder. "Then what do you want, Elle?"

"I want you not to have to settle," I told him.

"Is that what you think I'm doing?"

"I know that's what you'll be doing. Because if you want more from me, you're not going to get it."

He said nothing for a long time. "When I readThe Little Prince, I thought you must be the rose. You with your four thorns, convincing me you're able to defend yourself. But now I know you hate roses. So you must be the fox instead.

So maybe what you really want is for me to tame you."

From a lot of men, that speech would have made me laugh, or roll my eyes. Then again, a lot of men wouldn't have

read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic story ofThe Little Prince, or bothered to try and understand it.

I reached for his hand and held it between both of mine. "The fox tells the Little Prince he is a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. Just like the flower was like a hundred thousand other flowers."

Dan tucked a strand of hair behind my ear with the hand I wasn't holding. "But the fox asked the prince to tame him.

To make it so they'd need each other and be unique to each other. And he did it."

"And then the prince went away, Dan, and left the fox bereft." I looked down at my hands ~ Megan Hart

The Simpsons is the best thing on American television. ~ Stephen Hawking

I think I take my style from all walks of life, and all generations and decades of life as well. I love mixing '50s with '80s and classic with punk. ~ Kelly Osbourne

In my house, neither my wife nor my daughter are impressed that I'm on television, and they remind me of that frequently. ~ Anthony Bourdain

Melinda was still stuck on the 24 thing. "And I don't see you grabbing the remote away from me when that countdown clock starts chiming," she said to Pete. "Unless it's to get a quick check of the scores on Monday nights."

Nick's ears perked up at the mention of scores. Sports. Now there was a topic upon which he could wax poetic. "Too bad Monday night football is over," he lamented to Pete. "But there's always basketball. Who are you eying for the Final Four?"

Pete looked mildly embarrassed as he gestured to Melinda. "She's, um, referring to the scores on Dancing with the Stars."

"He likes it when they do the paso doblé," Melinda threw in.

"The dance symbolizes the drama, artistry, and passion of a bullfight. It's quite masculine," Pete said.

"Except for the sequins and spray tans," Melinda added.

Pete clapped his hands together, ignoring this. "How about you, Nick? Are you a fan of the reality television performing arts? ~ Julie James

Unlike any other player on the board, the press has no oversight, no mandate, few penalties, and even fewer consequences. Because there are not enough reporters on the ground, too many bureaus have outsourced both their reporting and standards to third party stringers whose spectacular videos of explosions and inflated body counts have shown up on both jihadist recruiting sites and American television screens, simultaneously. ~ Matt Sanchez

I've done a lot of theater work that has been quite diverse. I feel very fortunate to have had many different people think of me in many different ways. So, as an actor that's all you - all I want is diversity. So far in film and television work I have done has not been as diverse, and I hope it grows to be. ~ Michael Stuhlbarg