All About Me!
Author: Mel Brooks
Release: November 30, 2021
Tagline: My Remarkable Life in Show Business
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Comedy, Biography, History, Film, Entertainment, Broadway
ISBN-10: 059315911X
ISBN-13: 978-0593159118
Synopsis: The Life and Times of the Legendary Mel Brooks, in his own words!
Declassified by Agent Palmer: Celebrating the World’s Greatest Intellectual Meshugenah, Mel Brooks
Quotes and Lines
So fasten your seatbelts and hang on for this wild ride that’s mostly about my life and career in this crazy thing called show business.
You might say that I’m an intellectual meshugenah.
Comedy is a very powerful component of life. It has the most to say about the human condition because if you laugh you can get by. You can struggle when things are bad if you have a sense of humor. Laughter is a protest scream against death, against the long goodbye. It’s a defense against unhappiness and depression.
Carl [Reiner] once said, “A brilliant mind in panic is a wonderful thing to behold.”
It [Get Smart] holds up because we were having fun with inept idiots. Inept idiots will always be fun.
Many writers become directors initially to protect their own work and then they fall in love with directing as an art form. While the writer is the proprietor of the vision, the director becomes the author of the film, because the director crafts the style, feelings, and casting. But the director will never get the writer’s initial look and progressions. So I decided to become a writer/director to protect my vision.
When I first opened Brooksfilms, my motto, my mission statement, was “Give talented people room to express their vision.”
Even at an age where many people are retired I am always looking for new projects to exercise my mind and engage my creativity. Because in my experience if you’re not working, you’re not really alive.
Comedy is a weird but very beautiful thing. Even though it seems foolish and silly and crazy, comedy has the most to say about the human condition. Because if you can laugh, you can get by. You can survive when things are bad if you have a sense of humor.