25 Quotes by 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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

You may work under incredible pressure over two hours in a day, but you're often around that studio 14 to 16 hours of that day.

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

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.