David Hyde Pierce Quotes

"I can vividly recall telling a joke in, like, second grade and realizing it was funnier if I didn`t laugh. I`ve been deadpan ever since."

"My life is an open book, but don`t expect me to read it to you."

The curse of being on Frasier is the challenge of finding writing that`s that good in any other medium. I`ve been looking at scripts for two years.

I was as happy doing theater in New York for little or no money as I am now doing television for more money. The happiness, I guess, comes out of it being a good job. The success has to do with the fact that it`s a good job that will continue.

Don`t you always feel bad when they take away one of the spoons? It`s like you ordered wrong.

Maybe it`s because I`m getting older, I`m finding enjoyment in things that stop time. Just the simple act of tasting a glass of wine is its own event. You`re not downing a glass of wine in the midst of doing something else.

My dad had been an actor... not only had my dad been an actor, but his dad had been an actor, and my great-grandfather had been an actor. And who knows before then?

From Kelsey, I have learned among many other things the value of turning on a dime and how you can have an extremely funny and extremely poignant moment with absolutely no separation in between... and sometimes in the same moment.

There`s nothing worse than putting two similar shows back-to-back. Viewers don`t want to watch one show and then sit through another half-hour of almost the same thing.

I probably was as bad as a security guard as I was as a tie salesman.

Last year, I finally got my own grand piano, and that was a big thing for me because it`s always been and always will be a very important part of my life.

We all went to Kelsey`s wedding, and yeah, we go to parties. We also go to each other`s house. A group of us got together over at Kelsey`s and just read through some plays just for the fun of it. That may not be everyone`s idea of a good time, but we had a good time.

I would always fall down the big main staircase in our house. My favorite thing in the world was to pretend to be horribly killed at the top of it, and to fall dramatically down to the bottom of it.

I had always acted for fun, and I wanted to do that. I really didn`t have the talent. I loved to play, but that`s a whole different level.

On some level in acting, what you`re trying to find is truth, because when it`s true is when it`s also funny.

People can be a hoot on the set, but if they`re not good to work with, that tires very quickly.

August was horse-racing time. The only time we`d ever go to the track is sometimes in the morning, when the horses would be working out.

I was going to be a concert pianist, and when I was in high school, my parents were scared to death that I would focus too much on that too soon. And that I`d end up in some sort of dead end, and not fulfilling whatever potential they thought I had.

I was chased through a chateau in the Loire Valley by a bunch of American school girls.

The first year I was on the show, it took an interviewer about 45 minutes to get it out of me that I even had a dog, and even then I wouldn`t tell him the dog`s name.

I don`t remember any sibling rivalry growing up, because by the time I was really conscious, Tom was going away to college. My relationship with him, which is a very close one, really developed in more recent years.

There will always be a Maris, because she is such a great character. In fact, I think NBC should give her a spinoff show in which she never appears.

I don`t have the time to tell you all the things I`ve learned from this cast. It`s an extraordinary ensemble because we all support each other so well.

We can`t control what the ratings will be. It`s like, if you`re going to go skiing, do you hope you`ll have a good day of skiing? Yes. Do you hope you won`t break your leg? Yes.

You only have a week to do a show. I mean, there`s only so deep you can dig in that week.

I went and took golf lessons so Dad would let me play with him. I was just terrible... but I was able to have a wonderful time just walking around with Dad. I can see the real pleasure of that game.

I found every single laugh as Laertes that you can find and only realized later that you really shouldn`t find any at all.

Sometimes in the most tragic situation, something just profoundly funny happens.

Alzheimer`s is a devastating disease. It was painful for me and my family to watch my grandfather deteriorate. We must find a cure for this horrible disease.