Fitzsimmons Quotes & Sayings

I have a basic philosophy that I've tried to follow during my coaching career. Whether you're winning or losing, it's important to always be yourself. You can't change because of the circumstances around you. — Cotton Fitzsimmons

When you're not 21, it's great to drink because you're not allowed to. You're a rebel: you gotta get a fake I.D., you gotta find a place to drink it, you gotta sneak in drunk. And if you get away with all that, you're laying in bed, your heart's pounding, you got vomit on your chin. You're like, 'I'm a rebel!' And you are. You're cool. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I love when problems have simple solutions. Cold medicine. Umbrellas. Condoms. Tax incentives & subsidies attracting favored industries. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I am definitely not listening to anything remotely close to my music, at least not on a nice day. — William Fitzsimmons

In the immortal words of Duke Vaughn, "If you don't have anything nice to say, take a big bite and chew slow. — Matthew FitzSimmons

I enjoy writing the same way I enjoy doing standup. Part of the challenge is being creative and making it work no matter what the constraints. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I feel like I am too old to eat jelly. But I am too young to eat prunes. I am between grapes. — Greg Fitzsimmons

My kids teased me at dinner that I'm not cool. I told them if I was cool I wouldn't be sitting at home with my kids. Pass the gravy. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The trial was over in nine days, the verdict a foregone conclusion. — Matthew FitzSimmons

I've finally been able to trust and have intimacy with somebody, which I've never been able to do. Like a lot of guys, I just have a hard time getting that connected. I can actually sleep with her in my arms - spoons position, right? Women smile, they love the spoons. Men would rather fork. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I never know what I'm going to say as I walk up to the microphone. I try to be in the moment. I try to go deeper into myself. I discover things on stage that I don't discover off stage about me. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Therapy really did prepare me to become an empathic songwriter. As far as advice goes, it's a matter of self understanding first. — William Fitzsimmons

I knew that drinking and doing stand-up was going to make me less of an effective comedian. And I just had a lot invested in wanting to be a really good comedian and so I stopped for that reason. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I don't gamble anymore since I had a kid. I have fun in Vegas. I see shows, Cirque du Soleil. Don Rickles was in town last time I was there. I'll have lunch with George Wallace. I just look in the Weekly calendar and see who's performing, and inevitably, we all meet up late night at one of the casinos. Jesus, I sound boring. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Don't be like me. Look at me: monogamous, in shape, no debt, sober ... I'm dead inside. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The first time I ever found Paste I thought somebody just might have finally made a magazine using only the contents of my brain. I read it cover to cover every single month. — William Fitzsimmons

I feel life is to be lived. You want to spend your time doing things and being with friends and all that. — Greg Fitzsimmons

But in a pinch, he was a capable coder too. He just wasn't especially fast. So when he was finally done coding and debugging his program and ran a successful test, it was past eleven on Tuesday night. He hadn't slept but for a few hours on Sunday night, and the lack of sleep had cooked him. — Matthew FitzSimmons

If you want to stop two people from having sex, let them get married. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Same thing every year, getting up at the crack of dawn, drinking, fighting, throwing up, pissing on walls and then you leave the house and things get bad. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Music is generally important to blind people, and most of the blind people that I have come into contact, through my parents, music is very special to them. — William Fitzsimmons

I was trained professionally to connect with people as a therapist. That's job number one, having a empathetic regard towards someone who is sitting right across from you. Being able to pull whatever their needs are, their desires and the things that are troubling them and being able to address that in some way. — William Fitzsimmons

My grandfather is from Ireland. His name is Florence McCarthy. He moved to New York in 1920. They used to beat him up because his name was Florence. He had to switch his name to Frank. And then this Christmas, he made an announcement - he goes, 'I'm switching me name back to Florence.' And we beat him up, 'cause it's a dumb name and he's old and weak and it was easy. — Greg Fitzsimmons

If you want to find guys with small penises, go to the Hummer dealership. — Greg Fitzsimmons

My friend goes, 'If you're going to use Rogaine, just put it somewhere you're going to remember to use it everyday.' So I put it right next to my Prozac. But now it just feels really pathetic using both of these products at the same time, 'cause if either one works, I don't really need the other one. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Taking down the Christmas tree makes it feel official: time to get back to joyless and cynical. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Somebody stole my identity. Good luck using it without the medications. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Time was the great leveler, and neither money nor power held sway over its relentless march. — Matthew FitzSimmons

What happens next?" Gibson found he was curious too. They finished The Return of the King two years later, and in the process, Gibson became a reader. Something — Matthew FitzSimmons

I'm not Metallica, you can tell that I'm really not that angry in most of my songs. — William Fitzsimmons

There's so many ways to do stand up, and I think, for awhile, people weren't really maximizing the freedom of it. We were all kind of doing a similar kind of stand up, and I started to see some original voices come out of Boston. — Greg Fitzsimmons

They just tested the tap water in Los Angeles and they found traces of estrogen and antidepressants in the tap water. So it's nice to know my son's going to grow up and have huge breasts but it's not going to bother him that much. — Greg Fitzsimmons

If it is a good song, it is a good song. The Beatles were pop, the beach boys were pop and it's the best music of all time. — William Fitzsimmons

Iowa's the worst. Iowa's just nothing, just flat as far as you can see. It's the only state in the country where you can stand on your front porch and actually watch your dog run away for three days. — Greg Fitzsimmons

When a banana gets rotten people love to tell you that you can make banana bread out of it. I have never seen anyone actually do it. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The NFL acknowledges that repetitive trauma to the head in football ... can cause a permanent, disabiling injury to the brain. — Bob Fitzsimmons

They say men have a sexual thought every 20 seconds. The other 19 are shame. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Trickle-down economics - it didn't work. The whole idea was supply-side economics: give rich people a lot of money; they'll spend it, it'll go into the economy. Here's what we found out - rich people, really good at keeping all the money. That's how they got rich. If you want it in the economy, give it to the poor people. You know what they're really good at? Spending all their money. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Lieutenant Governor Paterson - blind, black guy - gets sworn in. First thing he says is, 'By the way, cheated on my wife. Let's just get that out in the open right now.' He didn't need to admit that. He's blind. Could have said it was an accident. — Greg Fitzsimmons

My dad was in radio; he was a broadcaster, and it was in the family. He hosted kind of a game show at one point on TV; he was the original host of 'Good Day New York,' and he hosted the Jerry Lewis telethon for 15 years. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The most interesting nerds are the ones who take offense to being called nerds. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The world is fantastic...it's the ultimate absurd circus and I am shot from a cannon into the energy! — Michael Fitzsimmons

Driving around with a receding hairline and two kids in a Prius feels a bit boring for me. — Greg Fitzsimmons

You're not going to make me have a bad day. If there's oxygen on earth and I'm breathing, it's going to be a good day.. — Cotton Fitzsimmons

Hope is a cancer. One of two things happens. Either you never learn the truth, in which case it gnaws down to the bone until there's nothing left, or worse, you do, and you go through that windshield at ninety because hope told you it was okay to make the drive without a seat belt. — Matthew FitzSimmons

What kind of selfish prick hangs himself where he'll be found by his fifteen-year-old son? No note, nothing. It was unforgivable. — Matthew FitzSimmons

Eventually my father bought a vacation house for us in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. My dad's friend had died, so my father bought the house from his widow. We would go down there once a year, and my father believed that he had bought a good investment property. Twelve years later he would sell it at a loss. Almost immediately after the sale, Club Med built a resort there near where the New York Mets would set up their spring training camp soon after. I've tracked articles since then about how Port Saint Lucie has had the fastest growing home prices in the country. When I told my friends at Rye Country Day that we had bought a second home in Florida, they were unimpressed because it was not Palm Beach. When I told my friends in Tarrytown that we had bought a house in Florida, they were sad and asked me when my family was moving. Gosh, poor people can be really dumb sometimes. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Debt means you had more fun than you were supposed to. — Greg Fitzsimmons

What is most difficult is when the large part of me that is a narcissist grows weary and is overtaken by the self-loathing part that always lurks in the shadows waiting for an opportunity to shine. — Greg Fitzsimmons

That old adage, that "music is a universal language", is really true. Even if all of the lyrics are understood, they seem to connect with it really well and in some ways, more so. — William Fitzsimmons

There was an old joke - it's not the fall that kills you but the abrupt stop. — Matthew FitzSimmons

Politics is an ugly picture with a pretty frame. — Matthew FitzSimmons

I'm kinda stuck in that awkward in-between stage where my hair is just starting to fall out, but I'm still maintaining my youthful acne. — Greg Fitzsimmons

there are kings and there are kingmakers. Regardless of what populist history might argue, you rarely have one without the other. — Matthew FitzSimmons

Google's no substitute for knowing things. Write that down. — Matthew FitzSimmons

There are three things you need to know about me before we go any farther. I'm the heiress to the Fitzsimmons' Vidalia onion empire and as southern as the day is long. (Now, you get the name, right?) I'll be thirty in less than two months, my curves have curves, I'm in love with the man of my dreams, and I have great hair (not conceited, just honest. Put away the claws.). And... I'm a vampire. (Not the biting kind. The cursed kind.) Any questions? — Julia Mills

I called my grandmother yesterday. She picks up the phone, 'Oh hello, dear, hold on a second, I just stepped out of the shower. Let me go put some clothes on.' I said, 'Hey Grandma, don't ever tell me you're naked again. Go put a lot of clothes on. Then put some more clothes on. I'm going to sit here and drink and try to forget you naked in my head.' I'll never eat raisins again. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I don't like to change things too much. I think pretty hard about things before I jump in, and once I do, I feel, 'All right, I don't want to waste the energy of buying, selling this, going on Consumer Reports, test driving, buying, selling a house.' I feel life is to be lived. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Joel Tippie, as well as Amy Ryan and Barb Fitzsimmons, for making these books so gorgeous Every. Single. Time. The amazing Brenna Franzitta, Josh Weiss, Mark Rifkin, Valerie Shea, Christine Cox, and Joan Giurdanella, for taking such good care of my words. Lauren Flower, Alison Lisnow, Sandee Roston, Diane Naughton, Colleen O'Connell, Aubry Parks-Fried, Margot Wood, Patty Rosati, Molly Thomas, Megan Sugrue, Onalee Smith, and Brett Rachlin, for all your marketing and publicity efforts, which are far too substantial to name. — Veronica Roth

If we don't have souls then who am I talking to when I keep telling myself to be good? — Greg Fitzsimmons

Since first hearing the story as a child, any mention of the 'Boston Tea Party' has elicited in me an excitement that is uniquely American. When I heard rumblings that there was a new Tea Party, I got goose bumps. I love tea, I love parties, I hate taxes; I'm in! It seemed that most of America joined in my excitement! — Greg Fitzsimmons

Entitlement breeds laziness, which in turn breeds decline. But of course with enough money, it is possible not to notice for decades that your family name is gathering dust. — Matthew FitzSimmons

What was the first rule to getting someone to fall in line? Figure out what they need and give them a taste. Not enough to sate them, but enough to whet their appetite. Enough that they wanted more. Needed more. — Matthew FitzSimmons

I have to stop watching the Olympics. It just reminds me that I forgot to try really hard at something. — Greg Fitzsimmons

This is the short drop," the man said. "You'll notice that, unlike the standard drop or the long drop, your neck is not broken. Which may seem like a blessing now, but in the end you will wish it had been a longer drop and a shorter wait. But that's the good news and bad news of the short drop. You live longer, but . . . you live longer. Most people think they'd always want to live longer, but twenty minutes at the end of a rope is a long time to die. A long time to regret things that cannot be changed and that no longer matter. — Matthew FitzSimmons

Anyway, the trick is seeing what they're trying to hide. What are they trying to draw your eye away from? Figure that out, and you figure out the man. Or woman. But start with men, because they're easier. Women are more of a PhD thing. — Matthew FitzSimmons

It's an amazingly consistent thing with Irish people. We will talk to strangers at parties for hours. It's what we were bred to do I think. And the Jewish people were bred to write the stuff that we say. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The compulsion to do the opposite of what you are told does not lend itself to many occupations outside the entertainment industry. Within the industry, it is unlikely that you will be very successful without it. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I'm sure people are shocked when they see a guy speeding and cutting them off and having road rage while in a Prius. — Greg Fitzsimmons

If you're a positive person, you're an automatic motivator. You can get people to do things you don't think they're capable of. — Cotton Fitzsimmons

Ever see a skinny guy on a cold day? You know they tremble like Chihuahuas. Then you see a fat guy in a tank top - nine degrees, he's sweatin'. Look at 'Titanic,' remember the boat goes into the icy cold waters? Little skinny Leonardo: dead. Final scene, Kathy Bates on a rowboat, coat open, eating a hotdog. — Greg Fitzsimmons

His regret was cold and offered no comfort. Filled up with words that he wished he had spoken and the faces he wished he had spoken them to. — Matthew FitzSimmons

Rescuing dogs is looked upon as a noble, trendy pursuit. But wouldn't rescuing a man from a homeless shelter be, in fact, more humane? — Greg Fitzsimmons

They say no one knows if we all see red the same way. Except traffic cops. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The most interesting hipsters are ones who stop being hipsters. — Greg Fitzsimmons

The best drunks are the ones who only hang out with other drunks in places we all know are filled with drunks. — Greg Fitzsimmons

We are now able to create virtual realities on computers. Are we all living in one created by someone in the future? — Greg Fitzsimmons

My father told me when I first started that standup is exciting and I should pursue it, but that writing would be the thing that would give me power over my career. I never have to take a road gig or a writing gig I don't want because I always have the ability to play one against the other. — Greg Fitzsimmons

If I am feeling musical and I pick up the guitar, usually something will eventually come out and I'll see where it goes. — William Fitzsimmons

A memory swam up from the depths, its hideous, reptilian spine almost breaking the surface before it swam powerfully away from him. — Matthew FitzSimmons

When I was in college, I would go out, and I would go to these open mic nights at Stitches and Nick's Comedy Stop, so I was going to classes during the day, and then at night, I would be signing up on the lists. — Greg Fitzsimmons

That is the thing about being a writer; your subject matter may not stay your subject matter if you break their trust by revealing personal and editorialized information about them. — Greg Fitzsimmons

You couldn't allow your past to define you. — Matthew FitzSimmons

When I work in San Francisco doing stand-up, I usually schedule it for July, and we'll drive up the coast and camp in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, and we'll just camp our way up the coast, and then we'll get to San Francisco and hang out there for four days. — Greg Fitzsimmons

Growing up with Bronx Irish parents during an era of protests against the status quo, I was especially committed to doing the opposite of what I was told to do. Forty-four years later, I am left with only one means of making a living: comedy. — Greg Fitzsimmons

As a single couple, we are no longer able to hang around with married couples 'cause they cannot be in our presence without getting very annoying. It's always like, 'So, when are you guys getting married? Huh? When are you getting married? When are you guys getting married?!' I dunno, you're married - when are you gonna die? You're already married, death will be next. When are you gonna die? — Greg Fitzsimmons

I was just in Las Vegas, where prostitution is legal. Which is a relief because I live in Los Angeles, where it is mandatory. — Greg Fitzsimmons

I realized that every second that I'm alive, the world cares less about me. It's just a very linear, downward progression. And it sounds cynical because you guys are young and you're full with life. I want you to understand - this is it. You have nothing to look forward to because you're peaking. If you're not having fun now, kill yourself. I don't mean that in a bad way, just - it's not worth it to go forward. — Greg Fitzsimmons