Bill Irwin Quotes

We constantly run lines together before every show too, and then there's a long, traditionally long, story to tell the audience every show. Today, we're doing it twice.

- Bill Irwin

What I love is the comedy of the body. It's a little highfalutin', but you can even say pre-verbal comedy. People laugh differently at stuff that isn't brought to them via the spoken word. It's from a different place; it's a different quality of laughter.

- Bill Irwin

This play is truly a great invention, and we're having a great time doing it eight times a week.

- Bill Irwin

I am the oldest of three. I was in charge of making sure my brother and sister were OK and also entertained so they didn't bother my mother, who had a job at home.

- Bill Irwin

It's shocking to think of the universe now without Robin Williams' energy, even muted.

- Bill Irwin

I do love the musical form, although it's often disappointing.

- Bill Irwin

People ask me, 'Have you done much drag?' And I say, 'I don't think of it as drag. I'm playing a woman!'

- Bill Irwin

It's an exhilarating play, and you come off tired, but thrilled.

- Bill Irwin

I used to watch the 'Jackie Gleason Show' and Phil Silvers, those early TV things. And a lot of them were patterned on the silent comedies of the '20s.

- Bill Irwin

Edward Albee, the premier dark playwright of the American theater, would show up at rehearsal and quote his favorite lines from 'Auntie Mame'. He would stand at the back of the theater, not facing the stage, and sort of conduct the music of his play.

- Bill Irwin

We want to be able to fly. We want to be able to sear somebody with lightning from across the room. Those are primal desires, to shoot somebody with energy.

- Bill Irwin

I used to be called a post-modern clown. But now, post-modernism is a quaint notion, too.

- Bill Irwin

Acting is all about relating to the people on stage with you, even in plays that break the fourth wall. Clowning, for the most part, is the opposite. If somebody in the audience sneezes, I can count on it: I don't even have to look at Shiner; he'll have his handkerchief out. It's all about all of us in the room together.

- Bill Irwin

Competition between men is a fuel that's useful to us. We have to be careful that it doesn't tell the same story over too many times, but it's amazing how durable that story is.

- Bill Irwin

We used to have a photo of me in full clown makeup taken when my son was 5. And when he was 17 or 18, he said, 'Yeah, that thing used to scare me. I hated that photo.' So it is scary; clowning is scary to people.

- Bill Irwin

People keep telling us, that they didn't know when they were booking tickets for it, but afterwards they say that they've had no sense that they were watching an old fashioned play.

- Bill Irwin

Here's my story: My mother and I were at Cirque du Soleil, looking down on Shiner doing his act. She was always tolerant of my being a clown, but I don't remember her rolling with laughter. But with Shiner, she could not sit up straight!

- Bill Irwin

Being nominated is a great thrill, and we like to say that all four of us were nominated, which means that our director, Anthony Page was nominated four times.

- Bill Irwin

I was a shy kid, wasn't necessarily an extrovert, but I couldn't help doing voices.

- Bill Irwin

From the earliest memories I have, I liked physical, funny things.

- Bill Irwin

The fact is that we like each other very much, and we of course see each other on stage all the time, but this means more time to spend together, and that's great. We couldn't be happier.

- Bill Irwin