Quotes by Norman Lear

About Norman Lear:

Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Maude. As a political activist, he founded the advocacy organization People for the American Way in 1981 and has supported First Amendment rights and progressive causes.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Norman Lear

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

Norman Lear

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

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

Norman Lear

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

Norman Lear

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

Norman Lear

That's the heart of it: My shows were not that controversial with the American people. They were controversial with the people who think for the American people.

Norman Lear

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

Norman Lear

Even when they don't know who Nixon was, these shows will continue to play.

Norman Lear

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

Nobody doubts my partisanship, but a lot of the activity is nonpartisan.

Norman Lear

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

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

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

You're in the business - when you're a writer, producer, director - to get ratings.

Norman Lear

There was no real controversy with All In The Family. That came from the people on the business end.

Norman Lear

Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don't collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don't really mean anything.

Norman Lear

But you know, my dad called me the laziest white kid he ever met. When I screamed back at him that he was putting down a race of people to call me lazy, his answer was that's not what he was doing, and that I was also the dumbest white kid he ever me...

Norman Lear

At great, great remove sit the head of General Electric, the head of News Corp, the head of Viacom, or the head of this giant international corporation that wants these ratings.

Norman Lear

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

Author Bio

  • NameNorman Lear
  • DescriptionAmerican television writer and producer
  • BornJuly 27, 1922
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionTelevision Producer; Screenwriter; Film Producer
  • AwardsPeabody Award; National Medal Of Arts; Air Medal; Marian Anderson Award