Chaplin Quotes

I was only to see Mr. Chaplin once after ‘The Kid.’ A great artist, one of the greatest, but I’m afraid I don’t think very much of him as a man. Running away from the country that gave him everything and denouncing the country in addition is something you simply can’t make any allowances for.

I’d like to produce, direct, write, score, and star in a film in exactly the way Chaplin did. I’ll do that before I’m thirty.

I love Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, but not Charlie Chaplin.

I’m not Charlie Chaplin and will never, ever claim to be. But when I become the ‘Tramp,’ I can feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

The real achievement of Woody Allen was that he was making movies that felt very personal, and for a whole group of people, it spoke to them. Then he became an archetype, like Groucho Marx or Chaplin.

I was a great fan of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy; they always inspired me.

When I was making the ‘Kid’ my salary was $75 a week. Chaplin gave me a $5,000 bonus at the end of the picture.

I don’t think the physical resemblance is as important as capturing the soul of the person that the actor is portraying. How much like Charlie Chaplin did Robert Downey Jr. look in ‘Chaplin?’ Did Meryl Steep actually resemble Nora Ephron in ‘Heartburn?’

I think it’s amusing to watch a naive, well-meaning character kind of undo more cynical characters – kind of like watching Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin.

My father had been an avid fan of Chaplin during the silent film days, but when the talkies came along, my father lost all interest in movies.

People try to put ownership on things: ‘That’s mine, that’s my joke.’ No such thing. Like if you tripped or stumbled and people go, ‘Oh, that’s Charlie Chaplin.’ You know what I mean? You can’t own a joke. You can be the guy that tells it the best, but you can’t own a joke. Nowhere can you own a laugh.

All I did as a child was pretend to be James Bond or Marlon Brando. When I was about four, I put on my dad’s work boots and went up and down the street with his walking stick pretending to be Charlie Chaplin.

I can consciously say I like squashing things because I saw ‘Tom and Jerry’ films or Charlie Chaplin in ‘Modern Times.’ That’s true.

Charlie Chaplin was known to be an acrimonious person. Not that I compare myself to him but I am quite brusque, too.

I love ‘Chaplin’; I mean I really love ‘Chaplin.’ I just think there’s a grace and an elegance that’s almost never been matched.

My idol growing up was Charlie Chaplin. I was obsessed with him. I mean, while other kids were watching Jim Carrey and the likes in the ’90s, I was watching Charlie Chaplin films, because I was a bit of a geek. I became obsessed with this idea of physical comedy.

He’s my favorite! He wrote and produced, and starred in and cast all of his movies! Can you imagine? I get really excited when I talk about Charlie Chaplin.

I just bought a building in Los Angeles – on Sunset Boulevard. It’s a building that was owned by Charlie Chaplin. It’s going to be a sound- stage for videos; for full-scale productions.

I’ve studied Charlie Chaplin for years. I’ve studied Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, all of them. I don’t play around. This is not a game.

In my life, I wanted to meet certain people. I never met Charlie Chaplin, but I met Werner Herzog.

Everyone seems to have this awareness of Charlie Chaplin because he was a really good businessman while Buster Keaton wasn’t.

The end of ‘City Lights’ makes me cry every time I see it – when Charlie Chaplin walks by the shop window and the once-blind girl brings him a flower and pins it to his lapel.

I wanted to live where I could pop to the bar that Humphrey Bogart took Lauren Bacall to, or the little restaurant where Charlie Chaplin had a booth.

I grew up on Harold Lloyd, Charles Chaplin, and Buster Keaton, and those were the ones who inspired me.

When I was a kid, I loved all the silent comedians – Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin. And I used to imitate them. I’d go to see a Buster Keaton movie and come home and try things out I’d seen. I learned to do pratfalls when I was very young.

The real good comedians, like Chaplin, would make you laugh and a second later, cry.

When people say ‘Charlie Chaplin’ I still think now of the guy in the moustache and bowler hat and funny walk – I don’t think of an old man who was my grandfather.

If you know anything about James Whitcomb Riley, you know that Little Orphan Annie is one of the most fantastic characters who ever lived in America before Charlie Chaplin.

Chaplin himself was the greatest scene stealer of all time. No matter what was happening Charlie could draw attention to himself – if he wanted to.

Chaplin was my idol. I remember watching those movies at this little theater in Woodstock, N.Y., when I was probably 6 and laughing so hard at the surprises, like Keaton suddenly being dragged by a streetcar.

I watched every single Charlie Chaplin film.

Kamal Haasan got inspired by his brief appearance in a role similar to Charlie Chaplin in ‘Punnagai Mannan’ and developed that into a full-fledged character in ‘Apoorva Sagodharargal.’

I don’t want to compare myself to him – I don’t want people to see me as this great genius – but when I see Charlie Chaplin’s movies there is a combination of drama, naivety and social meaning that I can see in myself, at a different level.

‘Hera Pheri’ is inspired by ‘Laurel and Hardy,’ Charlie Chaplin. It is about humor of poverty.

I discovered the 7th art at home when I was kid, through Charlie Chaplin’s movies and those of my father who shot documentaries. He was my biggest influence. So I took his camera and started shooting.

If people don’t sit at Chaplin’s feet, he goes out and stands where they are sitting.

When you speak of silent movies, everyone thinks of Charlie Chaplin first.

Shakespeare wrote great plays that we’re still watching all these years later. Charlie Chaplin made great comedies and they are still as funny today as they ever were.

I liked the America of Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton – it was all a dream, of course, but a very alluring dream for a young man from Canton.

I would say that Pixar is doing for animation what Chaplin did for film, infusing it with heart and characters that you care about and stories that you lose yourself in. They are similar revolutionaries and changing a medium.

Comedy is a universal language. I grew up watching Nagesh, Surilirajan, Thenga Srinivasan and S.V. Shekhar’s comedies. And, of course, Charlie Chaplin! These artists are so blessed: they can make other people happy.

My initial introduction to him was – this is a funny story… My Aunt Marian, my entire life growing up, told me that I looked like Charlie Chaplin. That didn’t really resonate with me when I was younger – I hadn’t seen a lot of his films.

I grew up and I was weaned on the Marx Brothers. They were sort of my all-time favorite. My parents showed me their movies when I was very young. And as I got older, I became a Charlie Chaplin fan, and I love Buster Keaton.

Well, you cannot think of cinema now, and you cannot think of cinema in the UK and not place Chaplin in the most extraordinary elevated context, if there can be such a thing, in that he was a genius, he was unique.

We used Chaplin’s formula in all my pictures. Make ’em laugh for five and a half reels, and then make ’em cry in the last half reel. But give ’em a chance to dry their eyes before the lights come up.

My mother doesn’t have much of a social life with other A-list people. Which in a way I’m very grateful for, because if I do make something of my career I will be able to say it wasn’t because I was a Chaplin.

I remember vividly seeing ‘Tarzan’ and Fred Astaire, the Chaplin films, Fred Astaire musicals, MGM, because of my mother. She was just interested in everything and she took me to opera and ballet, and then ballet got me hooked.

I want to make the kind of films that Charlie Chaplin did.

I grew up in a small village outside of Krakow, and when I was small we had only a small television, and we had only one and two programs. I remember it was black and white. And I loved to watch Charlie Chaplin. I was so small, but I remember his movement.

The Hollywood business has been experiencing continual change since about 1915, when Charlie Chaplin was in Venice. The current time is no exception… You have to accept there will be constant change in the future.

I think physical comedy is an amazing asset because it tells a story that’s more universal than just language and dialogue. I grew up watching Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. They’re very powerful figures in my life.

There’s not one major greatest influence on my career. It would be film and great artists and great imagineers – Jim Henson, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin, people who understand the joy of the imagination.

In my day, the only people who achieved real independence were my father, Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin, who, with D. W. Griffith, formed United Artists. Other than that, everybody belonged to the big studios. They had no say in their own careers.

As I don’t know what life would be like without my Chaplin connections, I work with them. I’m just really happy it’s a family I can be proud of; it’s not as if I’m related to some Z-list celebrity.

‘Spin City’ was a really wonderful time for me. I made friends for life on that show. I made friends with Richard Kind, Michael Boatman, Barry Bostwick, Sandy Chaplin. We’re all close. It was a really wonderful time.