Friedlander Quotes & Sayings

Judah Friedlander, I'm ok with you being the world champion for a few years more. That's a hook with legs. But I think he should make one more hat, that says 'there's a limit to how funny words on a hat can be'. And then move to a chapeau. — Andy Kindler

One of the characteristics of kitsch is precisely the neutralization of 'extreme situations', particularly death, by turning them into some sentimental idyll. — Saul Friedlander

Sometimes '30 Rock' was a struggle because I'd be doing the show and still be doing stand-up full-time. — Judah Friedlander

Photographs are so loaded with information. They're remarkable. As I said, you get both the tree and the forest. — Lee Friedlander

You don't have to go looking for pictures. The material is generous. You go out and the pictures are staring at YOU. — Lee Friedlander

I became a wrestling fan in college. So, I was more of a wrestling fan as an adult than when I was a little kid. — Judah Friedlander

I only wanted Uncle Vernon standing by his own car (a Hudson) on a clear day, I got him and the car. Ialso got a bit of Aunt Mary's laundry and Beau Jack, the dog, peeing on the fence, and a row of potted tuberous begonias on the porch and 78 trees and a million pebbles in the driveway and more. It's a generous medium, photography. — Lee Friedlander

It's only until Mrs. Friedlander gets better

And when is THAT going to be? Earth to Mel. Come in, Mel. The woman is in a COMA. Okay? She is COMATOSE. I think some alternative arrangements for the woman's pets need to be made. You are a DOORMAT. A COMATOSE woman is using you as a DOORMAT.

The woman has to have some relatives, Mel. FIND THEM. — Meg Cabot

I am the greatest marital artist in the world. — Judah Friedlander

The world makes up my pictures, not me. — Lee Friedlander

I never really planned on doing a television series. — Judah Friedlander

I'm not one of those kind of people who does the observational 'Hey, don't you hate it when you're at the grocery store and the line's long and the cash register starts taking too long.' I don't really do that kind of stuff. I'm heavy on persona, and I do a lot of interacting with the audience. — Judah Friedlander

Susannah Heschel's The Aryan Jesus is a brilliant and erudite investigation of the convergence between major trends in German Protestantism and Nazi racial anti-Semitism. By concentrating on the history of the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life, Heschel describes in forceful detail the Nazification of all aspects of Protestant theology, including the Aryanization of Jesus himself. This is a highly original and important contribution to our understanding of the Third Reich. — Saul Friedlander

Spoken words are like seeds that we plant which will eventually grow into something sweet or bitter. Our actions in this life are seeds we're planning for the other life promised by Allah. — Shems Friedlander

Exit our Miss Mel. Exit Friend Tim. When I glanced over my shoulder, Max Friedlander had disappeared - a remarkable feat, considering that there was nowhere on that side of the hole for him to go except into the Chronicle building.

But he can't have gone in there. His soul would have been ripped instantly from his body while demons sucked out his life force. — Meg Cabot

Photography is a generous medium ... — Lee Friedlander

Photographs also show the way that the camera sees. It's not just me or you or anybody else. The camera does something that is different from our own setting. — Lee Friedlander

You jump on a bike and start peddling. You fall down and you get up again. I've always been a 'learn by doing' kind of guy. — Judah Friedlander

Keith Powell and Judah Friedlander are like brothers to me. — Katrina Bowden

I retired from everything except work. — Lee Friedlander

A lot of my friends were mostly working in black-and-white - people like Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and others. We would exchange prints with each other, and they were always very supportive of what I was doing. — William Eggleston

You can literally walk into my apartment and sit on a hat; you can step on a hat; you can probably open up the refrigerator and find a hat tucked under some rotten food. I have a lot of hats. — Judah Friedlander

Dolly, I swear to God, if you tell one more person that I saw Max Friedlander naked I will personally come over there and put a stake through your heart, which I hear is the only way to stop someone like you.

He was not NAKED, okay? He was fully clothed. FULLY CLOTHED AT ALL TIMES.

Well, except for his forearms. But that's all I saw, I swear it.

So, stop telling people otherwise!!! — Meg Cabot

I had one girl send me an e-mail saying she wants to go out with me, but it's like a two-pronged deal because she wants to blog the date. And I'm like, No! I don't want to be on a reality show. — Judah Friedlander

I sort of have to self-censor sometimes. — Judah Friedlander

I'd like to work with John Waters. I grew up in Maryland, so I'm a huge Waters fan. — Judah Friedlander

At first, my presence in my photos was fascinating and disturbing. But as time passed and I was more a part of other ideas in my photos, I was able to add a giggle to those feelings. — Lee Friedlander

The key to practicing levitation is simple. Practice jumping up - but not jumping down. — Judah Friedlander

I think the equipment you use has a real, visible influence on the character of your photography. You're going to work differently, and make different kinds of pictures, if you have to set up a view camera on a tripod than if you're Lee Friedlander with handheld 35 mm rangefinder. But fundamentally, vision is not about which camera or how many megapixels you have, it's about what you find important. It's all about ideas. — Keith Carter

Perhaps the essence of tradition, it's ultimate justification, is to comfort, to bring a small measure of dreams, a brief instance of illusion, to a moment when every real avenue of escape is cut off, when there is no longer any recourse. — Saul Friedlander

Facing the kitsch aesthetic is the unfathomable world of myths. — Saul Friedlander

The idea that the snapshot would be thought of as a cult or movement is very tiresome to me and, I'm sure, confusing to others. It's a swell word I've always liked. It probably came about because it describes a basic fact of photography. In a snap, or small portion of time, all that the camera can consume in breadth and bite and light is rendered in astonishing detail: all the leaves on a tree, as well as the tree itself and all its surroundings. — Lee Friedlander

As a comedian, I think you need to keep things real. — Judah Friedlander

I like hanging out at non-showbizzy places. — Judah Friedlander

With a camera like that you don't believe you're in the masterpiece business. It's enough to be able to peck at the world. — Lee Friedlander

It wasn't like I just woke up and said, 'Here's my gimmick; I'll wear a hat and put something weird on it.' — Judah Friedlander

There is a kitsch of death. For example, death transformed into sweet sleep: The 'good night, sweet prince' of the last scene of Hamlet. — Saul Friedlander

If you are doing stand-up comedy, you have to be confident in what you are doing. That doesn't mean just because you are confident you are funny. — Judah Friedlander

I've been driving in the city for years because, as a stand-up in N.Y.C., you can perform at more comedy clubs a night if you have a car. Getting from club to club by subway is too slow at night and too expensive by cab. So, many comics live far out from Manhattan and drive in every night. — Judah Friedlander

I think I've proven with my career that I can play a wide variety of characters. Yet, I still get typecast as the crazy slob guy. That's how it always works. — Judah Friedlander

Anything that looks like an idea is probably just something that has accumulated, like dust. It looks like I have ideas because I do books that are all on the same subject. That is just because the pictures have piled up on that subject. Finally I realize that I am really interested in it. The pictures make me realize that I am interested in something. — Lee Friedlander

The camera is not merely a reflecting pool and the photographs are not exactly the mirror, mirror on the wall that speaks with a twisted tongue. — Lee Friedlander

Show business always tries to stereotype you, so that is something you have to fight against no matter who you are. A lot of actors who are of a minority background complain that they only get stereotyped roles, and they are 100 percent correct. However, it's also true that, no matter who you are, you get typecast as well. — Judah Friedlander

I'm a massive Steven Seagal fan. I know his movies are horrible, but I've watched all of them over and over again. I'd want to do a movie with him and Van Damme. — Judah Friedlander

I watch a movie or a T.V. show or whatever; if it's good, I like to watch it more than once, and it's always fun to catch something you didn't see initially. — Judah Friedlander

As the World Champion, every day is pretty much like Valentine's Day for me - as far as hooking up with the ladies. — Judah Friedlander

The world is a perfect design. If we can see it. If we can see ourselves and our surroundings. A vast sky held up by pillars. A carpet of earth that gives us all the food and fruit and nourishment we need to live. Animals of every species. Some that we can ride, some that we can eat, some that can help us in our work. They have specific duties.You can't tie a lion to a cart.
They have all been placed here as means for us to see our inner natures. Just because we are dressed like human beings doesn't exempt us from having animal tendencies. The mouse in us that steals a little bit from here and there. The vain peacock that grooms himself all the time. The sly fox. The stubborn donkey that closes his ear to the name of Allah. The scorpion that stings. These are all in us. — Shems Friedlander

Math and reading are my only weaknesses - other than that, I'm perfect. — Judah Friedlander

I started doing my own animated movies when I was in ninth grade; that's when I got the filmmaking bug. When I was about 16, I started writing jokes for doing stand up, and then I was 19 and started doing stand up. — Judah Friedlander

Sometimes just the facts of the matter make it interesting. — Lee Friedlander

I never got into things to be famous. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's annoying. — Judah Friedlander

There's a lot of thought that goes into every single thing I wear. — Judah Friedlander

When you take a picture you haven't a clue that it is going to be what it is. Maybe you have a clue but you don't really know. There are too many possibilities. Part of the game is how many balls you can juggle. It is to me. When you are 12 you can juggle two. Maybe when you are 50 you can juggle five. That is an interesting concept to me: how much I can put in and still make it pull together? — Lee Friedlander

Stand-up comedy is the most relaxing thing I do. If I want to unwind and de-stress, I go out and do stand-up, often several shows in a night. — Judah Friedlander

I think some people's comedy IQ's aren't as high as other people's, so they don't really know what's going on. Or they think they know what's going on, but they don't really. — Judah Friedlander

I've been doing stand-up since '89. — Judah Friedlander

I've done all kinds of movies, but I wanna do some more independent films that are not your run-of-the-mill type movies like 'American Splendor', which I had a big part in, that are really trying to do something unique. — Judah Friedlander

My shirt and my hat always say 'World Champion' in some language. English, Spanish, Chinese, 'Star Wars' language, which is also known as Aurebesh, mermaid language. — Judah Friedlander

I need to get a wife. But it's hard, you know, it's hard to find a girl you can trust. Some of these girls, they want to go out with you so they can blog about you. — Judah Friedlander

I take more to the subject than to my ideas about it. I am not interested in any idea I have had, the subject is so demanding and so important. — Lee Friedlander

Soccer and ping-pong are my two favorite sports to play. — Judah Friedlander

I'm actually banned from the Himalayas, because I'm too good at yoga. — Judah Friedlander

Before I started doing '30 Rock', I did about 25 movies. I'd always been doing stand-up every night, and then I would do, like, two to four movies a year. So I really liked doing that, and I want to get back to that, but because of the time commitment to '30 Rock', there's not much time to do that stuff. — Judah Friedlander

Let's say there was a fat guy heckling me. I would rip him to shreds, but I would never go for the obvious, never talk about how he's fat or anything. — Judah Friedlander

If one really knew what one was doing, why do it? It seems to me if you had the answer why ask the question? The thing is there are so many questions. — Lee Friedlander

Paul Verhoeven might be my favorite director, and I'm serious. — Judah Friedlander

I don't consider lacrosse a sport. To me that's just a frat activity that got out of hand. — Judah Friedlander

I get hecklers all the time! — Judah Friedlander

No, don't learn at karate schools. They overcharge you for karate uniforms. They make you pay, like, fifty or seventy-five bucks just for a karate uniform, and you don't wear a uniform in everyday life, so why train in one? Most fights take place outdoors, not inside with perfect lighting and mats. — Judah Friedlander

Tina Fey is really cool. She's so mellow and laid back. — Judah Friedlander

I've been doing stand-up just about every night since I started in 1989. It's my home base. But I'm into doing comedy in all mediums, platforms and situations. — Judah Friedlander

I suspect it is for one's self-interest that one looks at one's surroundings and one's self. This search is personally born and is indeed my reason and motive for making photographs. The camera is not merely a reflecting pool and the photographs are not exactly the mirror, mirror on the wall that speaks with a twisted tongue. Witness is borne and puzzles come together at the photographic moment which is very simple and complete. The mind-finger presses the release on the silly machine and it stops time and holds what its jaws can encompass and what the light will stain. — Lee Friedlander

Art being a thing of the mind, it follows that any scientific study of art will be psychology. It may be other things as well, but psychology it will always be. — Max J. Friedlander

When I'm not filming anything or on the road doing stand-up, I'm usually doing stand-up shows every night - usually a few shows a night at different clubs in the city. — Judah Friedlander

In Manhattan, I often do two or three or more shows a night, so I'm always working on new material. — Judah Friedlander

[Garry Winogrand] was a bull of a man and the world his china shop. — Lee Friedlander

Stand-up is kind of like my home base, and doing stand-up in New York is what I like doing most. — Judah Friedlander

I actually went to film school, but I didn't like it. I'm basically self-taught. — Judah Friedlander

I had not met Tina Fey before I auditioned for '30 Rock'. Some people think we're old friends from 'Second City' days. I had always been a fan of Tina's. But I actually never planned on being in a sitcom. — Judah Friedlander

There are a lot of conventions, a vocabulary and a set of practices and assumptions that underlie most professional book design. Since design is important to the eventual success of your book whether you attempt to do it yourself or hire it out, it pays to know something about those conventions and assumptions. After all, we don't want anything getting in the way of your communication with your readers. You've got a message for them, a story to tell, or ideas to spread. That's what's important. — Joel Friedlander

A mysterious intersection of chance and attention that goes well beyond the existential surrealism of the 'decisive moment'. — Lee Friedlander

The West to me is where the landscape is, — Lee Friedlander

Valentine's Day is definitely one of those days where it's either awesome or it's a downer. — Judah Friedlander

I'm a big Pacino fan. He's a great actor: so much passion and intensity. — Judah Friedlander

As with many life-altering events, an autoimmune illness is almost guaranteed to cause you to re-evaluate your priorities. — Joan Friedlander

I don't like gimmicky pictures; I've always hated them. I like pictures that are very clear and clean, whether you're a great street photographer - somebody like Friedlander or Winogrand or Cartier-Bresson - or whether you're a portraitist, like Irving Penn. — Mary Ellen Mark

I'm an extra dark black belt in ping pong. — Judah Friedlander

I do uphill skiing; I don't do downhill skiing. I think that's for nerd amateurs. — Judah Friedlander

I don't live in a fancy neighborhood. — Judah Friedlander

This body is like the earth. Our bones are like mountains. Our belly is like the sea. Our flesh is like the dust and mud. The hair that grows on us is like plants, and the skin from which this hair grows is like arable land, and the area of our body where hair does not grow is akin to saline soil. Our sadness is like darkness and our laughter like sunlight. Sleep is brother to death. Our childhood is like spring, our youth like summer. Our maturity is like the autumn, our old age like the winter of life. All of our movements are like the stars moving in the sky. — Shems Friedlander

My act's not heavy on pop culture or stories, just lots of jokes. — Judah Friedlander

The American psychologists classified persons on the basis of IQ tests, labeling those judged feebleminded in descending order as morons, imbeciles, or idiots — Henry Friedlander