The reason Im in this business, I assume all performers are — its Look at me, Ma! Its acceptance, you know — Look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma. And if your mother watches, youll show off till youre exhausted; but if your mother goes, Ptshew! – Lenny Bruce
The liberals can understand everything but people who dont understand them. – Lenny Bruce
Todays comedian has a cross to bear that he built himself. A comedian of the older generation did an act and he told the audience, This is my act. Todays comic is not doing an act. The audience assumes hes telling the truth. What is truth today may be a damn lie next week. – Lenny Bruce
We all know that the theater and every play that comes to Broadway have within themselves, like the human being, the seed of self-destruction and the certainty of death. The thing is to see how long the theater, the play, and the human being can last in spite of themselves. – James Thurber
The Miss America contest is the most perfectly rendered theater in our culture, for it so perfectly captures what we yearn for: a low-class ritual, a polished restatement of vulgarity, that wants to open the door to high-class respectability by way of plain middle-class anxiety and ambition. – Gerald Early