I haven't left the house without a packet of Kleenex in my back pocket for as long as I can remember. Whenever I start thinking I'm incredibly cool, the packet of Kleenex in my back pocket brings me right back down to earth.
My name at birth was Carol Joan Klein. It would take me five decades to appreciate my surname and the history that came with it. Along the way, I would add an 'e' to Carol and acquire several more surnames.
I have a discipline that has served me very well in my career and in my personal life... and that's gotten stronger as I've gotten older. I've always felt if I don't just have a natural knack for it, I will just out-discipline the competition if I have to - work harder than anybody else.
I did have a knack for playing weirdos. There's still sort of this perception of me out there as being this crazy guy.
I don't think I think things through like regular people would. I could be a real hateful person, and I also don't really care about my own well-being, I guess. I just kind of have that knack about me. I just don't care.
Writers have to have a knack for listening. I need to be able to hear what is being said to me by the voices I create.
I think, in a large way, it's, 'OK, you've knelt; you've made your point.' But I don't necessarily feel like that. I don't know what that looks like. Do I kneel forever? I don't know, probably not. But I think until I can feel like I'm being more effective in other ways, then this seems appropriate to me.
It's very intimidating to be photographed, but if I kneel down and chat with you, so you're looking down at me, it makes you feel less threatened.
When about fifteen I once made a great scandal by taking out my knife in prayer meeting and assaulting a young man who, while I was kneeling down during the prayer, stood above me and squeezed my neck.
Basically, I wear sandals, like Jesus. When it gets cold in Chicago, the snow way up to my knees, I still wear my sandals. But that's me.
I think self-doubt, as grim as it can be, makes me a better writer. Stasis and hubris would probably be the death knell for my career.
To me, the thing is, through good or bad, if you're a Knicks fan, you're down with the Knicks, and that's the bottom line.
I couldn't have come close without my teammates' help because the Knicks didn't want me to make 100.
Being in front of the camera - first of all, when I wanted to get into television, it was as a producer. I never had an idea that I would do anything in front of the camera, and that kind of happened by accident. But I wanted to be a producer or give me a job with the Yankees or play for the Knicks. I was a sports nut when I was a kid.
I still want to see the Knicks do well; I do. I promise I do. That's my team. After all the stuff that happened, people say to me, 'You still like the Knicks?' Well, that's just the way it is. That's what happens when you're a kid. Your team is your team, and everything is die-hard.
Me playing for the Knicks is not realistic.
People want to tear me down, they were going to knife me anyway.
I don't know why they gave me a knighthood - though it's very nice of them - but I only ever use the title in the U.S. The Americans insist on it and get offended if I don't.
Ronnie Barker was a man whom I thought more deserving of a knighthood than me.
For as well as I have loved thee heretofore, mine heart will not serve now to see thee; for through thee and me is the flower of kings and knights destroyed.
