Norman Lear Quotes

• I wanted to just do a one-act play for 26 minutes, with commercials at the beginning and end. For years, I couldn’t get my way. They wanted to interrupt three times.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Interrupt, Commercial

• So we gravitated to shows and issues and causes that made people care.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Gravitated, Cause

• I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Morality, Begin

• Granted, the writers, directors, producers, and that community make a great deal of money. But they might be choosing to do a whole lot of other things for the living they make.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Producers, Community

• I stop and look at traffic accidents. I won’t hang around, but when I hear something is terrible, as bad as it is, I’ve gotta look at it.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hear, Around

• The trafficking of sex and violence is comes after the demand for ratings.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Trafficking, Violence

• Originally, with all the shows, we went looking for belly laughs.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Originally, Belly

• The American people may not be the best-educated, but they’re very wise at heart.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Best-Educated, Heart

• Maybe they continued to agree with Archie Bunker – as I said earlier, you can’t change people’s minds, but you can get them to think.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Bunker, Change

• It crossed our minds early on that the more an audience cared – we were working before, on average, 240, live people. If you could get them caring – the more they cared, the harder they laughed.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Crossed, Caring

• But it also became the experience, or was the experience, of the writers who were attracted to this kind of humor. They’re all men or women who come from the same kind of experience in their own lives.

  Norman Lear

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Attracted, Writer

• TV that people will never see, that giant international corporations will never touch, will never pay your salary.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Salary, Giant

• We are a country of excess. So it’s not the violence, per se, but the exacerbation and constant repetition.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Constant, Repetition

• We got ratings. It isn’t that they won’t quarrel with you, or say you’re always right. But as long as you stay strong and the ratings are good and you’re reasonable – I don’t think we fought unreasonably. We basically won that right.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Ratings, Reasonable

• When we went on the air, I didn’t want to be interrupted for an act-one curtain.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Interrupted, Curtain

• You’re in the business – when you’re a writer, producer, director – to get ratings.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Producer, Director

• Life goes on pretty much the same way. I’ve been working on a couple of films on the side. You may see some more. You may even see another television show.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Goes, Television

• I guess because the shows were activist in their own way – the marriage of my public activism and my career activism, you know – people understand me very well. They also understand there’s a very strong bipartisan part in all of this.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Activist, Bipartisan

• In this nation, leadership is dollars.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Nation, Dollars

• Life is about having a good time, and it was a good time. We did some things well and some things poorly, but that was always the case.

  Norman Lear

  Tags in Some Things, Poorly

Norman Lear (28)

Birth:	27th July, 1922
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Businessman, Filmmaker, Screenwriter, Television Producer

Related Authors

• Tim Cook
• Michael Eisner
• Eric Allen Johnston
• Johnnie Bryan Hunt
• Arthur K. Watson
• Peter Nivio Zarlenga
• Michel Martelly
• David Filo
• Alan Lakein
• Jason Kilar

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 10th December

Births

• 1956 - Yannis Stournaras
• 1952 - Susan Dey
• 1851 - Melvil Dewey
• 1893 - Lew Brown
• 1953 - Luis Vicente Gutierrez

Deaths

• 1946 - Walter Perry Johnson
• 2000 - Marie Windsor
• 1808 - James Sullivan
• 1909 - Red Cloud
• 1936 - Luigi Pirandello