When I started out in 1960, I thought it might possibly last a couple of years. I never expected it to last 42. I take great satisfaction in that longevity. – Bob Newhart
I can’t do a one-camera show. I don’t know how to do that kind of show where you count in your head and then you do the next line. – Bob Newhart
Don Rickles and I are best friends. I know that might seem strange to those who know Don only by reputation, but somebody has to be his friend. Just to make sure I don’t forget, Don gave me a doormat that sits just outside the front door of my house. It reads: ‘The Newharts: The Rickleses Best Friends.’ – Bob Newhart
I was influenced by every comedian I ever saw work. That’s the only way you learn how to do it. – Bob Newhart
When I first started out, ‘Time’ magazine did an article on what it called ‘the sick comics,’ and they were myself, Shelley Berman, Nichols & May, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, and Mort Sahl. We were considered ‘sick.’ – Bob Newhart
I think the thing about it is when you grow up in Chicago there’s such a thing as putting on airs, you know? And you just learn not to put on airs. Don’t act like, ‘Oh boy, I’m somebody.’ They’ll slap you down. – Bob Newhart
Jack Benny was, without a doubt, the bravest comedian I have ever seen work. He wasn’t afraid of silence. He would take as long as it took to tell the story. – Bob Newhart
The first time I heard Richard Pryor, I knew he would be a major force in the world of comedy. – Bob Newhart
I left ‘The Bob Newhart Show,’ which was my decision. CBS wanted it to go on. But I could see television changing; I could see the tastes were changing. – Bob Newhart
People are meant to be certain places, and I think I’m meant to be on a sound stage doing situation comedy. – Bob Newhart
I’ve been told to speed up my delivery when I perform. But if I lose the stammer, I’m just another slightly amusing accountant. – Bob Newhart
The highest of highs is to have a new routine that you’re just breaking in and that’s working, and that’s – you’re one step removed doing a situation comedy because you have a live audience there. – Bob Newhart
I’m glad you can’t talk on your cells while the plane is in the air. That would drive me crazy. – Bob Newhart
It was a decision to work clean. I just prefer to work that way. I have no problem with comedians who don’t work that way. There was a temptation in the early ’70s to reconsider. I decided against it. – Bob Newhart
I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’. – Bob Newhart
With the advent of cell phones, especially with the very small microphone that attach to the cell phone itself, it’s getting harder and harder I find, to differentiate between schizophrenics and people talking on a cell phone. – Bob Newhart
I remember seeing a movie with Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney where they were husband and wife, and they got in bed, and he had on polka-dot pajamas and she had on striped pajamas, and when they got up the next morning he had on the striped pajamas and she had the polka dot pajamas, and that was considered racy at that time! – Bob Newhart
I don’t know how doctors pick one specialty over another. Some you can understand. Pediatricians. Or gynecologists delivering babies, bringing a new life into the world, but how does someone want to be a proctologist? How can you fall in love with proctology? – Bob Newhart
I think you should be a child for as long as you can. I have been successful for 74 years being able to do that. Don’t rush into adulthood, it isn’t all that much fun. – Bob Newhart
Well, my career choice made a difference because I never would have met my wife, Jenny. I met her through comedian Buddy Hackett. He set us up on a blind date and then we got married. – Bob Newhart
