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Lenny Bruce Quotes

Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, freestyle, and critical form of comedy which integrated satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York state, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003.Bruce is renowned for paving the way for future outspoken counterculture era comedians, and his trial for obscenity is seen as a landmark for freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him third on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Wikipedia  

✵ 13. October 1925 – 3. August 1966
Lenny Bruce photo

Works

How to Talk Dirty and Influence People
Lenny Bruce: 19 quotes7 likes

Famous Lenny Bruce Quotes

“Clean to you, schmuck, but dirty to the Latins!”

Lenny Bruce

Context: You can't put tits and ass on the marquee!... Why not?... Because it's dirty and vulgar, that's why not!... Titties are dirty and vulgar?... Okay, we'll compromise. How about Latin? Gluteus maximus, pectoralis majors nightly... That's alright, that's clean, class with ass, I'll buy it... Clean to you, schmuck, but dirty to the Latins!

“Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.”

Lenny Bruce

Variant: Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.

“There are never enough 'I love you's.”

Lenny Bruce

“I want to perform an unnatural act.
in”

Lenny Bruce

Lenny as the Lone Ranger, in Thank You Mask Man' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121802/

Lenny Bruce Quotes

“If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”

Lenny Bruce

“The 'what should be' never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no 'what should be,' there is only what is.”

Lenny Bruce

“The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it… try to fake three laughs in an hour -- ha ha ha ha ha -- they'll take you away, man. You can't.”

Lenny Bruce

“Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.”

Lenny Bruce

Source: The Essential Lenny Bruce: his original unexpurgated satirical routines

“If you live in New York, even if you're Catholic, you're Jewish”

Lenny Bruce

“Let me tell you the truth. The truth is what is, and what should be is a fantasy. A terrible, terrible lie that someone gave to the people long ago.”

Lenny Bruce

as quoted by Paul Krassner in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175844/

“If I get busted in New York, the freest city in the world, that will be the end of my career.”

Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3345229.stm

“Life is a four-letter word.”

Lenny Bruce

Lenny Brucehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5241370.stm

“A Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of Judea, or one who is regarded as a descendant from that tribe. That's what it says in the dictionary, but you and I know what a Jew is: One Who Killed Our Lord… there should be a statute of limitations for that crime.
in Lenny Bruce Without Tears 1972”

Lenny Bruce

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151327/

“The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds.”

Lenny Bruce

referred to by Paul Krassner in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175844/

“I'm not a comedian. I'm Lenny Bruce.”

Lenny Bruce

as quoted by Paul Krassner in Lenny Bruce: Swear to tell the truth 1998 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175844/

“In the Halls of Justice, the only justice is in the halls.”

Lenny Bruce

Lenny Brucehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5241370.stm

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