Billy Crystal's Quotes
Born: 1947-03-14
Profession: Comedian
Nation: American
Biography of Billy Crystal
To be good, you need to believe in what you're doing.
Tags: GoodAt 60, I could do the same things I could do at 30, if I could only remember what those things are.
Tags: RememberEven when I was in school shows, in elementary school doing plays, I'd always go off book and start improvising.
Tags: Book, School, StartFrom the first time I saw Sid Caesar be funny I knew that's what I had to do.
Tags: Funny, Knew, TimeI'd like to think there is a Heaven, and it starts from the happiest day in your life.
Tags: Happiest, Heaven, LifeMy grandparents invented joylessness. They were not fun. I've already had more fun with my grandchildren than my grandparents ever had with me.
Tags: Fun, InventedWell, the way things are going, aside from wheat and auto parts, America's biggest export is now the Oscar.
Tags: America, Aside, BiggestWhat's so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you're constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that.
Tags: Life, Love, TimeYou really have to have some muscle to be on the stage in front of the world.
Tags: Front, Muscle, StageA laugh is a weird sound, and when you get a couple thousand people making it at once, it's really strange. But when I can feel proud of myself for causing it, it's great.
Tags: Great, Laugh, StrangeDad had a music store, and he'd often bring home comedy albums that I would listen to. I started listening to Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby, and developing taste. They really influenced my style of comedy.
Tags: Dad, Home, MusicHumans love sex, we need sex, it's how we connect, it reminds us we're alive, it's the third most basic human need, after food and good movie popcorn.
Tags: Food, Good, LoveI was a film-directing major at NYU. I'm still not sure why I became a directing major, when I was really an actor and a comedian, but there was something that drew me to doing that.
Tags: Actor, Sure, WhyKids need a happy household. They need to be loved and supported in their dreams. And I don't think you can make your kids' dreams your own. They need you to support them in their dreams.
Tags: Dreams, Happy, KidsYou have to really respect what your kids are doing with their kids and how they're raising them. You can't push your way into areas where you shouldn't be saying anything. You have to always remember they're not your own kids. Play with them, love them, spoil them to death - then hand them back.
Tags: Death, Love, RespectAt the same time we overlap, because, I do linguistics, and Ben did a first degree in Linguistics at Lancaster University, so he knows some of my subject.
Tags: Knows, Subject, TimeA feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread.
Tags: English, Global, MakesVisit partners pages
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Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument.
Tags: Argument, Strength, ThinkingAlthough many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.
Tags: Enjoy, Rules, UnderstoodAnyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it.
Tags: Anyone, Language, WritingAs I get older and I get a few more years experience I become more like Dad, you know, King Lear.
Tags: Become, Dad, ExperienceAt any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.
Tags: Language, Styles, TimeIt hasn't been a problem with Ben, I think we worked together very well, we don't have rows.
Tags: Problem, Together, WorkedSending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible.
Tags: Natural, Sensible, WaysSpellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.
Tags: Choices, Eventually, PopularTexting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.
Tags: Disaster, Impact, LanguageVocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.
Tags: Matter, VocabularyYou don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.
Tags: Against, Talk, TimeEnglish has been this vacuum cleaner of a language, because of its history meeting up with the Romans and then the Danes, the Vikings and then the French and then the Renaissance with all the Latin and Greek and Hebrew in the background.
Tags: English, History, LanguageEver since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people's minds - people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.
Tags: Put, Technology, ThoughtIt took three years to put Shakespeare's words together, there were a lot of words to be studied and a lot of words to be sorted out, and it proved to be a major project.
Tags: Put, Together, WordsLanguage has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end of understanding who you are and what society is like.
Tags: End, Means, SocietyLikewise, there is no evidence that texting teaches people to spell badly: rather, research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.
Tags: Best, Kids, RatherText messaging is just the most recent focus of people's anxiety; what people are really worried about is a new generation gaining control of what they see as their language.
Tags: Control, Focus, Language