Stephen Glenn Martin, an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician, was born on August 14, 1945. In 2013, he received an Honorary Academy Award in addition to five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and other accolades.
In 2016, he was nominated for two Tony Awards for his musical Bright Star. Among his many honors, he has received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center Honors, and an AFI Life Achievement Award.
56 Steve Martin Quotes
- “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
2. “It’s pain that changes our lives.”
3. “Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.”
4. “I like a woman with a head on her shoulders. I hate necks.”
5. “I’ve got to keep breathing. It’ll be my worst business mistake if I don’t.”
6. “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”
7. “I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns out today is.”
8. “Finally, we do become wise, but then it’s too late”
9. “The conversation at dinner hadn’t been successful either; it bore the marks of an old married couple who had very little left to say to each other.”
10. “You can’t really conduct your life by one or two phrases.”
Steve Martin Famous Quotes
11. “She had destroyed whatever was between us by making a profound gaffe: She met me.”
12. “Teaching is, after all, a form of show business.”
13. “The operation was a success, but I’m afraid the doctor is dead.”
14. “I handed in a script last year and the studio didn’t change one word. The word they didn’t change was on page 87.”
15. “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”
16. “Lacy was just as happy alone as with company. When she was alone, she was potential; with others she was realized.”
17. “I believe you should place a woman on a pedestal: high enough so you can look up her dress.”
19. “I’ve heard lots of people lie to themselves but they never fool anyone.”
20. “Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you’ll be a mile away and have his shoes.”
Positive Steve Martin Quotes
21. “Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke.”
22. “I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.”
23. “I’ve got to keep breathing. It’ll be my worst business mistake if I don’t.”
24. “Why sip from a tea cup, when you can drink from the river.”
25. “Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.”
26. “Love is a promise delivered already broken.”
27. “I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you’re an idiot.”
28. “Chaos in the midst of chaos isn’t funny, but chaos in the midst of order is.”
29. “When someone less capable is ahead of me, I am not pleased. It makes me insane.”
30. “I guess I wouldn’t believe in anything anymore if it weren’t for my lucky astrology mood watch.”
Steve Martin Quotes About Life
31. “Always make room for the unexpected in yourself.”
32. “She has learned that her body is precious and it mustn’t be offered carelessly ever again, as it holds a direct connection to her heart.”
33. “He had no college dreams and hence no proximity to the challenge of new faces and ideas.”
34. “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”
35. “I believe in equality. Equality for everybody. No matter how stupid they are or how superior I am to them.”
36. “I just gave my cat a bath. Now how do I get all this fur off my tounge?”
37. “I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.”
38. “There are few takers for the quiet heart.”
39. “You’re nuts, but you’re welcome here.”
40. Thinking too much also creates the illusion of causal connections between unrelated events.”
Steve Martin Inspirational Quotes
41. “It’s not what you know, it’s what you think you know.”
42. “She has simply never quite learned to walk or hold herself comfortably”
43. “Life exists so the Universe can experience itself.”
44. “There’s no better way to learn something than to learn it in front of an audience. Your terror drives you.”
45. “I believe in equality. Equality for everybody. No matter how stupid they are or how superior I am to them.”
46. “So, while fitting in, she was like a wicked detail standing out against a placid background.”
47. “Boy, those French: they have a different word for everything!”
48. “I have found that, just as in real life, imagination sometimes has to stand in for experience.”
49. “I’ve heard lots of people lie to themselves but they never fool anyone.”
50 “She has learned that her body is precious and it mustn’t be offered carelessly ever again, as it holds a direct connection to her heart.”
51. “I just believe that the interesting time in a career is pre-success, what shaped things, how did you get to this point?”
52. “I just believe that the interesting time in a career is pre-success, what shaped things, how did you get to this point?”
53. “She started converting objects of beauty into objects of value.”
54. “How to make a million dollars: First, get a million dollars”
55. “All this in no way discounts her attractiveness. Mirabelle is attractive; it’s just that she is never the first or second girl chosen.”
56. “When you work in the glove department at Neiman’s, you are selling things that nobody buys anymore.”
Must Read: Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin
Learn how this comic genius advanced from being a novice magician at Disneyland to a popular stand-up comic in America in the 1970s, and why he eventually quit the business. You’ll feel happy and sad while watching it, and you’ll love Steve Martin even more.
Steve Martin Short Biography
Steve Martin first gained popularity in the 1960s as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1969, and later as a regular host on Saturday Night Live. Martin’s unconventional, absurdist comedy routines were seen by packed theaters during his nationwide tours in the 1970s.
After giving up stand-up comedy in the 1980s, Martin has found success as an actor, appearing in movies like The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), All of Me (1984), Three Amigos (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), L.A. Story (1991), Bowfinger (1999), and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). Additionally, he played the patriarch of the family in the movies Parenthood (1989), Father of the Bride (1991–1955), and Cheaper by the Dozen (2003–2005).
Along with Martin Short, another comedian, Martin has been touring the country since 2015. They received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, which was released in 2018.
Alongside Short and Selena Gomez, he co-created and starred in his first television series, the comedy Only Murders in the Building, for Hulu in 2021. For this project, he received nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
Martin is also credited with writing the book and lyrics for the comedies Meteor Shower (2017) and Bright Star (2016), both of which had their Broadway debuts.
Additional Read:
Steve Martin on His Late Career Surge and Contemplating Retirement: “This Is, Weirdly, It”