Quotes about television (674 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“The fear reappears every day, while showering, while watching television, even when just drinking coffee.”

José Baroja book No fue un catorce de febrero y otros cuentos

Drink , Coffee , Fear

“The damned thing works! (telegram, on the first successful television broadcast)”

Philo Farnsworth (1906–1971) American inventor

George Everson
Official Website of Philo Farnsworth https://www.cmgww.com/historic/farnsworth/

Success

“But I know for a fact that had I had a father, I'd have some discipline. I'd have more confidence. Your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can. Your mother can't reassure you the way a man can. My mother couldn't show me where my manhood was. You need a man to teach you how to be a man. When I was young I was quiet, withdrawn. I read a lot, wrote poetry, kept a diary. I watched TV all day. I stayed in front of the television. It was when I was in front of the TV by myself, being alone in the house by myself, having to cook dinner by myself, eat by myself. Just being by myself and looking at TV, at families and all these people out there in this pretend world. I knew I could be part of it if I pretended too, So early on I just watched and emulated … and I just thirsted for that. I thought if I could be and act like those characters, act like those people, I could have some of their joy. If I could act like I had a big family I wouldn't feel as lonely.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

People , World , Family , Way

“Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Time

“Being an atheist must be like living in a closed cell with no windows. I’d hate to live like that, wouldn’t you? We see them, mind you, on television today, many brilliant people who are professional atheists who say they know for a fact that it’s insanity to have a God or to believe in religion. Well, OK, God bless them for feeling that way and I hope they’re happy. But I couldn’t live with that certainty, and I wonder about some of them: why are they protesting so much? How are they so sure of what is out there? And who am I to refute the beliefs of so many great philosophers and martyrs all the way down the years?”

Anthony Hopkins (1937) Welsh stage and television actor

"Sir Anthony Hopkins: I couldn't be an atheist". https://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2011/02/11/sir-anthony-hopkins-i-couldnt-be-an-atheist/ (February 11, 2011)

God , Hate , People , Religion

“First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII — and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we’ve realized it’s a brochure.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

World

“I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

As quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984) by Leslie Halliwell
Variant: I find TV very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.

Books , Education , Time , Reading

“It's a mistake to read. Television is the only way.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

Way , Reading

“Television is chewing gum for the eyes.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

“Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coersion, brainwashing, and manipulation.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Variant: Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coersion, brainwashing, and manipulation.
Source: Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge

Nature

“Yeah, I think James Brown is a genius you know, when he's with the Famous Flames, unbelievable. I used to watch him on television and I used to get angry at the cameraman because whenever he would really start to dance they would be on a close-up so I couldn't see his feet. I'd shout "show him show him," so I could watch and learn.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

On watching James Brown as a young child.
Televised Interview with Oprah Winfrey (1993)

Thinking , Learning , Dance

“As Linda drifted in and out of consciousness, her fellow comedian Mark Steel noticed Joan Collins on the television. “I was on a chat show with Joan Collins,” he told fellow comedian Andy Hamilton. “How old is she?” Hamilton asked. “I think she must be close to 75,” replied Steel. From beneath the pile of bedclothes a little voice piped up: “How much is that in human years?””

Linda Smith (1958–2006) comedian

Sunday Times, 11 November 2007

Thinking

“That one mother [of victim] that gets on television all the time, who thinks I should get 33 injections, I think she ought to take 33 valiums and go lie down.”

John Wayne Gacy (1942–1994) American serial killer and torturer

Source: CBS 2 News interview (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YqB_4N6erE

Lie , Thinking , Time

“The moral nihilism of celebrity culture is played out on reality television shows, most of which encourage a dark voyeurism into other people's humiliation, pain, weakness, and betrayal.”

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

Source: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Pain , People , Reality , Betrayal

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

As quoted in Guitar Player (1 August 2004), and in "Pax Patter" at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) http://www.abc.net.au/civics/rights/pax.htm
Variant: When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set, we'd have peace.

Peaceful , Peace

“If you want to use television to teach somebody, you must first teach
them how to use television.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

William Gibson book Neuromancer

Source: Neuromancer (1984)

Color , Dead

“[…] despite how hard sometimes the world seems to be, and all you see on television is war and conflict and poverty and violence, the truth is that if you had to choose when to be born, not knowing where or who you would be, in all of human history, now would be the time. Because the world is less violent, it is healthier, it is wealthier, it is more tolerant and it offers more opportunity than any time in human history for more people than any time in human history. Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still terrible things happening around the world or in this region. We still have things like human trafficking. And we still have terrible abuse of children. And there are conflicts. And so these are things that we’re going to have to tackle and deal with. But you should know that with each successive generation things have improved just a little bit. And over time, that little bit adds to a lot. And it’s now up to you, the next generation, to make sure that 20 years from now, or 30 years from now, people look back and say, wow, things are a lot better now than they were back then. And there will still be problems 20 or 30 years from now also. But they will be different problems, because you will have solved many of the problems that exist today.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall (April 2014)

War , Children , People , Truth

“You spend too much time alone, too much time watching television, and too little time cultivating the inner man. You live in a squalid little flat in what is referred to as a no-go zone from which your friends, of whom you see less and less, have all fled for the suburbs long ago with wives and sprogs in tow. You are exceedingly unlucky in love, having invested years in a romantic relationship which, as you know only too well, is neither romantic nor much of a relationship. In short, you have all the social prospects of a garden gnome.”

Stephen R. Lawhead (1950) American writer

Source: The Skin Map (2010), p. 12

Love , Time

“Television and newspapers show people's lives at a certain point. But novels tell you what happened after the riot, what happened when everybody went home.”

Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer

Yonder Mark (ed.), The Quotable Gordimer, 2014.

People , Home

“The upper classes really shouldn't open their mouths on television. Whatever it is they're saying, all your brain actually hears is "Tra la la, I live in a bubble, tra la la, murder a fox, tra la la, Conde Nast Traveller, tra la la, Kensington High Street, tra la la."”

Charlie Brooker (1971) journalist, broadcaster and writer from England

They should know their place and keep quiet.
On Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine in What Not to Wear
[Screen Burn, The Guardian, 8 December 2001]
Guardian columns, Screen Burn

Travel

“The face of globalisation is contradictory. The internet and television can bring knowledge and information, but also offensive sexuality and mindless violence into the home. Trade can bring new wealth and opportunities, but also huge disruptions and change to communities. In all nations - including America - this change can bring fear. Fear that because of modernity we will lose of control over our economic choices, our politics, and most importantly our identities - those things we most cherish about our communities, our families, our traditions, and our faith. But I also know that human progress cannot be denied. There need not be contradictions between development and tradition.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2009, A New Beginning (June 2009)

Fear , Family , Faith , Home

“I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise?”

Federico Fellini (1920–1993) Italian filmmaker

"Television"
I'm a Born Liar (2003)

Thinking , Silence

“Yes [death has become a taboo]. Today people want to avoid the subject and hide the deaths that happen around them. It is as if the world were a hotel where the dead usually disappear at night, without any guest being able to notice their presence. While movies and television address death, they do not touch the fundamental point of finitude. The deaths are false, the good guys get shot and come back to life. It's another way of treating death as unreal.”

José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature

ÉPOCA Interview (in Portuguese) http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Epoca/0,6993,EPT1061569-1666-2,00.html, São Paulo, 2005.

Life , Death , People , World

“In a way, I suppose you could say my experience is quite limited. For example, I never locked Oliver Cromwell in a broom closet while singing "Waltzing Matilda." I never sawed a television in half, although I once saw Wendy O. Williams saw a guitar. I never played a decent game of jacks. I never played poker with a toothless one-eyed pirate who kept picking his teeth with a Bowie knife to distract me, while his parrot looked over my shoulder and told him what cards I had by using an elaborate code involving vomiting, chirping, and sea chanteys.”

John S. Hall (1960) Poet, author, singer, lawyer

"I'm Sorry"
Lyrics, Happy Hour (1992)

Way , Game , Singing , Sea

“I thought it would be interesting if I came back to television to play somebody somewhat dark. What's bizarre is that we're shooting seven feet from the 'Friends' stage. I know how long it takes to get here from my house.”

Matthew Perry (actor) (1969) American actor

Marc Peyser (September 4, 2006) "Falling for Fall: What's Cool and Coming Your Way: Summer's ending. Get over it. Here's a look at the riches of autumn. First up, 'West Wing' creator Aaron Sorkin rides again with the terrific TV drama 'Studio 60.'", Newsweek, Newsweek Inc., p. 54.

Housing

“I have to paint fast on television because of the limited time, but I don't want people to see what I'm showing them as work, something to worry and fret over. This is supposed to be fun.”

Bob Ross (1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host

Judi Hunt (November 23, 1991) "Disciples of The Bob Ross Technique Find Joy in Learning They Can Paint", The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p. C1.

People , Time , Painting

“At the end of every television broadcast, the names of the people who worked on it are listed. Why, you may ask yourself sometimes, would so many people want to take credit for such a bad show? Well, its just like what's happened to the dollar. Credits in television suffer from inflation. There are more of them and they arent worth what they used to be, even on a good show.”

Andy Rooney (1919–2011) writer, humorist, television personality

[Andy Rooney, w:Andy Rooney, 6, Credits, Years of Minutes, 2003, PublicAffairs, 978-1586482114]

People , Suffering

“These television shows that have 14 shots of somebody looking at each other with the wind blowing through their hair drive me insane.”

Amy Sherman-Palladino (1966) American television writer, director, and producer

NYTimes.com, "Job Title: The 'Gilmore' Noodge" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/arts/television/23heff.html?ex=1121313600&en=6a20ddae804ec0a8&ei=5070&adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1106535613-AH4C904DjoUiEAdysK3Zow&oref=login.

“I don't think there are very many people that will have the experience of sitting in this room, doing a job, and the next thing you know you've been on every television camera around the world, and people are' they're frightened of you. They don't know what to make of you. I think people seemed to believe when they saw me that they might be becoming possessed. That is the look in their eyes. They were frightened of me. And no matter what I said or did, it didn't change. And the fact that it was a job in film, it just never came across. And I really' I wish that things had been different back then, but people couldn't see that it was entertainment.”

Linda Blair (1959) actress, producer, animal rights activist

Linda Blair Interview http://www.horrorgalore.com/interview/linda-blair (March 24, 2015)

People , World , Thinking , Change

“Imitation is the sincerest form of television.”

Fred Allen (1894–1956) comedian

Attributed in Newsweek, 14 January 1980.

“We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

Interview in Macworld magazine (February 2004)
2000s

Thinking

“The revolution will not be televised.”

Gil Scott-Heron (1949–2011) American musician, poet and author

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Lyrics, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, 1970

“My favorite thing [about Latino television] are the commercials. Because they're always about sex. You don't know what the product is until, like, the last two seconds. It's always some model comes walking out, all sexy, like, [Mimics sexy music] [Feminine voice] "Hola." [Resumes music] [Feminine voice] "Ay que rico!"…And on the 28th second, like, [Mimics female giving a pleasured shout]…"Pepsi."”

Gabriel Iglesias (1976) American actor

[Audience laughs] And you're sitting there, going, "I gotta go get a Pepsi!"
Hot & Fluffy (2007)

Pleasure , Music , Sex

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, that we've enjoyed some good times this evening, and enjoyed some laughter together, I feel it is my obligation to remind you of some of the negative, depressing, dangerous, life-threatening things that life is really all about; things you have not been thinking about tonight, but which will be waiting for you as soon as you leave the theater or as soon as you turn off your television sets. Anal rape, quicksand, body lice, evil spirits, gridlock, acid rain, continental drift, labor violence, flash floods, rabies, torture, bad luck, calcium deficiency, falling rocks, cattle stampedes, bank failure, evil neighbors, killer bees, organ rejection, lynching, toxic waste, unstable dynamite, religious fanatics, prickly heat, price fixing, moral decay, hotel fires, loss of face, stink bombs, bubonic plague, neo-Nazis, friction, cereal weevils, failure of will, chain reaction, soil erosion, mail fraud, dry rot, voodoo curse, broken glass, snake bite, parasites, white slavery, public ridicule, faithless friends, random violence, breach of contract, family scandals, charlatans, transverse myelitis, structural defects, race riots, sunspots, rogue elephants, wax buildup, killer frost, jealous coworkers, root canals, metal fatigue, corporal punishment, sneak attacks, peer pressure, vigilantes, birth defects, false advertising, ungrateful children, financial ruin, mildew, loss of privileges, bad drugs, ill-fitting shoes, widespread chaos, Lou Gehrig's disease, stray bullets, runaway trains, chemical spills, locusts, airline food, shipwrecks, prowlers, bathtub accidents, faulty merchandise, terrorism, discrimination, wrongful cremation, carbon deposits, beef tapeworm, taxation without representation, escaped maniacs, sunburn, abandonment, threatening letters, entropy, nine-mile fever, poor workmanship, absentee landlords, solitary confinement, depletion of the ozone layer, unworthiness, intestinal bleeding, defrocked priests, loss of equilibrium, disgruntled employees, global warming, card sharks, poisoned meat, nuclear accidents, broken promises, contamination of the water supply, obscene phone calls, nuclear winter, wayward girls, mutual assured destruction, rampaging moose, the greenhouse effect, cluster headaches, social isolation, Dutch elm disease, the contraction of the universe, paper cuts, eternal damnation, the wrath of God, and PARANOIAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Playing With Your Head (1986)

Life , God , Bad luck , Children

“If I was in a 9-6 job, I would want to come home and see someone pleasant on television. I don't mean that someone has to be extremely gorgeous, but there has to be a pleasant personality. The moment you look at a flower you feel nice — that is exactly what beauty does to a person. With good looks, things surely become easier.”

Sukirti Kandpal (1987) Indian actress

On the need of good looks for success in industry https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/My-boyfriend-doesnt-enjoy-watching-my-romantic-scenes-Sukirti-Kandpal/articleshow/20330247.cms/

Beauty , Feeling , Home , Flowers

“I am not dreaming about Bollywood as of now but if I get a role in a film, I am open to doing it. I am not obsessed with the idea of being a part of Bollywood. I am happy with television. Television, today, isn’t just bread and butter; it is wine and cheese. TV actors are very well paid, happy and go abroad to spend their holidays. I do not just like TV, I love it.”

Sukirti Kandpal (1987) Indian actress

On Bollywood and Television http://www.tellychakkar.com/tv/interviews/television-today-isnt-just-bread-and-butter-also-wine-and-cheese-sukirti-kandpal/

Love , Dreams , Idea , Wine

“People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway.”

Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete

Interview (1971); also quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html in ESPN SportsCentury
1970s

People , Horse

“It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it'll put you to sleep. This is what they did with the march on Washington. They joined it. They didn't integrate it; they infiltrated it. They joined it, became a part of it, took it over. And as they took it over, it lost its militancy. They ceased to be angry. They ceased to be hot. They ceased to be uncompromising. Why, it even ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, a circus. Nothing but a circus, with clowns and all. You had one right here in Detroit — I saw it on television — with clowns leading it, white clowns and black clowns. I know you don’t like what I'm saying, but I’m going to tell you anyway. 'Cause I can prove what I'm saying. If you think I'm telling you wrong, you bring me Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph and James Farmer and those other three, and see if they'll deny it over a microphone.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Message to the Grass Roots (10 November 1963)

Coffee , Thinking , Sleep , Strong

“There is no question but that if Jesus Christ, or a great prophet from another religion, were to come back today, he would find it virtually impossible to convince anyone of his credentials despite the fact that the vast evangelical machine on American television is predicated on His imminent return among us sinners.”

Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) English actor, writer, and dramatist

As quoted in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993) edited by Robert Andrews, p. 742

Religion , Question , Christ

“The young watch television twenty-four hours a day, they don't read and they rarely listen. This incessant bombardment of images has developed a hypertrophied eye condition that's turning them into a race of mutants. They should pass a law for a total reeducation of the young, making children visit the Galleria Borghese on a daily basis.”

Federico Fellini (1920–1993) Italian filmmaker

"Younger Generation"
I'm a Born Liar (2003)

Children , Law , Reading

“I believe in a parallel universe of image and fantasy that isn't so much fantasy as it is forever sealed in films and things that have entertained us for years. This parallel universe has influenced me perhaps even more than the real world or the physical world. Because when I think of certain things, like a beautiful woman, its most likely someone I saw on film… these are things I've been taking from film or television and applying it to real life.”

Tom Ford (1961) American fashion designer

Vogue Voices: Tom Ford, Vogue, January 10, 2014, April 18, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTvfYC71d8,

Life , World , Beauty , Thinking

“Almost everything interesting in the human experience is the result of an individual experiencing, experimenting, explaining, and sharing,” said my young friend. “A hive mind would be the ancient television broadcasts, or life at the height of the datasphere…consensual idiocy.”

Dan Simmons book The Rise of Endymion

Source: The Rise of Endymion (1997), Chapter 21 (p. 464)

Life

“I'd have played against him (Len Bias) for the next 14 years. I would have been in my prime and he would have been in his. I'll never forget what he looked like. He was a 'Wow!' player. When Maryland played and was on television, I watched. It was like, 'I need to watch this guy; I'll be seeing him real soon.'… It was just shocking. Thing is, cocaine was huge then. My brother had been in and out of rehab a few times…. It was a popular drug at the time. And guys I was playing against, like John Lucas and Michael Ray Richardson and John Drew had done cocaine. I was thinking: 'What the hell is up with this cocaine? I should try this once to see what it was all about.' Then, we heard the reports were that Bias only used it once… that it was his first time. When I heard that, it scared me to death… scared the daylights out of me. It scared me into not trying it even once, not going anywhere near it.”

Charles Barkley (1963) American basketball player

Asked to comment on the 20th anniversary of the cocaine-overdose death of Len Bias,

Death , Guy , Hell , Thinking

“(On the idea of being offended): “The majority of people are very reasonable I’ve found, but ya know what, they don’t write letters when something offends them on TV, because reasonable people know IT’S JUST FUCKIN’ TELEVISION! Not only that, reasonable people have a life! They’re not sittin’ in some trailer with some fuckin’ crayon in their hand, some chicken scrawl goin’ ‘I saw a guy talk about Jesus on the tube! I ain’t gone tune in no more!’And also reasonable people know ultimately they’re just fuckin’ jokes! Are you so afraid of a guy tellin’ jokes!””

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Relentless (1992)

Life , People , Guy , Idea

“Well, when I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house. 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!”

Whoopi Goldberg (1955) American actress

Whoopie Goldberg "“When I was 9 years old, Star Trek came on…” ~ Whoopi Goldberg" http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/03/when-i-was-9-years-old-star-trek-came-on-whoopi-goldberg/ March 8, 2014.

Star , Housing

“(Cartoon title) A cat being cured of hairballs through a television ministry. (Voice on television) Place your right paw on the screen.”

Nicole Hollander (1939) Cartoonist

Source: Sylvia cartoon strip, p. 120

Cats

“I want to explain my environment to those who don't come any closer to it than the records they buy or the images they see on television. People want the truth. Even if they can't handle it, they want it. I let you know that I survived nine bullets not to sell records, but because it's the truth. Every time I sit down for an interview, I'm asked, "Well, 50, how did it feel to get shot nine times?" But those stories don't hold the weight, the pain, or the hope of my experience. It just can't. This is my mindset and these are the things that go on. This is why I say the rhymes that I say. This is what happened when I was trying to get rich before I died in Southside Queens.”

50 Cent (1975) American rapper, actor, businessman, investor and television producer

Extract of From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens http://aalbc.com/reviews/50_cent_interview.htm.
Song lyrics, From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens (2005)

Pain , People , Truth , Hope

“Television leaves no external scars.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Have Space Suit—Will Travel

Source: Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958), Chapter 3

“All these animals are put in cages, never see the sun or grass, and they leave this hell only to go to the slaughter-house. For me intensive breeding is a sign of human degeneration. If one can find that acceptable, then we humans have lost all moral value. … [How long have you been a vegetarian? ] Since 1962, when I went on French television to denounce conditions of animal slaughter. That is when I became aware of the horror of factory farming, live transports and the killings of farm animals. I have always been sensitive to animal distress but from then on I refused to be involved in such inhuman industrial deaths.”

Brigitte Bardot (1934) French model, actor, singer and animal rights activist

" Brigitte Bardot: 'I became aware of the horror of factory farming http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=51041&lang=en". Interview for Primorske novice (November 2009) as reported by European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA) website

Death , Hell , Grass , Sun

“It is the historical necessity, if there is a historical necessity in history, that a new decade of electronic television should follow to the past decade of electronic music.”

Nam June Paik (1932–2006) American video art pioneer

Nam June Paik (1965), as cited in: David Dunn, " A History of Electronic Music Pioneers http://vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_Eigenwelt/pdf/021-062.pdf." ders.(Hrsg.), Eigenwelt der Apparate-Welt.(Katalog), Linz (1992): 21-62.
1960s

Music , History , Past

“In television or a movie I bring my own ego and consequently can mess up. In the theatre I learnt very quickly to shut up and listen. Now I am able to get out of my own way.”

Matthew Perry (actor) (1969) American actor

Neil Norman (May 1, 2003) "Back from the brink: Fame almost destroyed Friends star Matthew Perry. Now, as he makes his West End stage debut, he tells Neil Norman how he beat his addictions", Evening Standard, Associated Newspapers Company, p. 20.

Way

“When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

"When woman is boss", Colliers, January 30, 1926

Communication

“I believe in the future of television! I wish to be ready to go up right along with it. Therefore I'm planning to get in on the ground floor. In fact I've already made the right connections and all that remains is for the industry itself to get under way! Full steam — Knowledge — Zzzzzp! Money — Zzzzzp!”

Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie

Power!
Jim, Scene Seven
The Glass Menagerie (1944)

Money , Way , Knowledge , Future

“One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

Cold Turkey (2004)

Time

“I've done a lot worse than jump off piers, son. Like throw a television out the window.”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

The Osbournes television show

“The role of television is the illusion of company, noise. I call it the fifth wall and the second window: the window of illusion.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal (1954) Prisoner, Journalist, Broadcaster, Author, Activist

"I spend my days preparing for life, not for death" http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2198557,00.html The Guardian, Laura Smith (2007-10-25)

“Television is for appearing on, not looking at.”

Noel Coward (1899–1973) English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer

Interview http://books.google.com/books?id=nxwE_NdDW_QC&q=%22Television+is+for+appearing+on+not+looking+at%22&pg=PA585#v=onepage with Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person ( 27 April 1956 http://www.tv.com/shows/person-to-person/april-27-1956-1042583)
2007
The Letters of Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Barry Day
illustrated
Alfred A. Knopf
9780375423031
585
http://books.google.com/books?id=yAxmAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Time+has+convinced+me+of+one+thing.+Television+is+for+appearing+on,+not+looking+at%22&pgis=1

Appearance

“There is a big difference between being anti-American and being critical of the United States. Once again: critiques are appropriate and necessary, provided that they rest on facts and address real abuses, real errors and real excesses -- without deliberately losing sight of America's wise decisions, beneficent interventions and salutary policies. But critiques of this kind -- balanced, fair and well-founded are hard to find, except in America herself: in the daily press in weekly news magazines, on television and radio, and in highbrow monthly journals, which are more widely read than their equivalents in Europe.”

Jean-François Revel (1924–2006) French writer and philosopher

Source: 2000s, Anti-Americanism (2003), p. 143

Error , Decision , Reading

“Radio did not kill books and television did not kill radio or movies — what television did kill was cinema newsreel. TV does it much better because it can deliver it instantly. Who wants last week's news?”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future (2001)
Context: It's important to remember that the relationship between different media tends to be complementary. When new media arrive they don't necessarily replace or eradicate previous types. Though we should perhaps observe a half second silence for the eight-track. — There that's done. What usually happens is that older media have to shuffle about a bit to make space for the new one and its particular advantages. Radio did not kill books and television did not kill radio or movies — what television did kill was cinema newsreel. TV does it much better because it can deliver it instantly. Who wants last week's news?

Books

“I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

News conference in Chicago, where he apologized for the above statement, which was accepted by the Vatican. (11 August 1966)
Context: I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this.

God , Religion , Christ

“When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

Interview in WIRED magazine (February 1996)
1990s
Context: When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth.

Thinking

“There’s a lot of great writing, and characters, and stories being told in television nowadays. And much more than there used to be. The opportunities to tell stories, because of the opportunities to show content. And so it’s drawing actors from cinema, movie actors, actors to where there’s a lot of opportunities to where you can tell stories.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

Drawing

“Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did. To see those, those monkeys from those African countries— damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Source: In a phone call to Richard Nixon about a television clip which showed members of the Tanzanian delegation dancing on the UN floor, after the UN voted to recognize China and expel Taiwan. https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/013 Conversation 013-008 of the White House Tapes, 6:30, quoted in * 2019-07-30

The Atlantic note: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/ronald-reagans-racist-conversation-richard-nixon/595102/ and in Ronald Reagan called Africans at UN 'monkeys', tapes reveal https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49177034, 31 July 2019, BBC note: 1970s

Shoe , Night , Country

“Sometimes when there was no food to eat at home, I would take my daughter to my neighbor’s house under the pretext of watching television and stylishly feed my daughter and myself. That’s why I can relate to people because when you are down, you are down. But one cannot just stay down.”

Bisola Aiyeola (1986) Nigerian Actress

Source: https://www.ivory-ng.com/n15000-ended-university-education-bisola-aiyeola/ Bisola sharing her down moments in an interview with NAIJ.com

Home , Housing , Daughters , People

“It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

Singing , Dance

“The television is 'real'. It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn't time to protest, 'What nonsense!'.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Thinking , Time

“For most people, there are only two places in the world. Where they live and their TV set. If a thing happens on television, we have every right to find it fascinating, whatever it is.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise

People , World

“We owe a lot to Thomas Edison-if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlelight.”

Milton Berle (1908–2002) American comedian and actor

“My family shouldn't have to put up with me. They're good people, solid, happy. Sometimes when I'm with them I think I'm on television.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

People , Family , Thinking , Happiness

“Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'… what do you suppose that means?"
Television: "… it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue

Religion

“We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra…”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Guy

“I'm always amazed that people will actually choose to sit in front of the television and just be savaged by stuff that belittles their intelligence.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

People , Intelligence

“Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television; solitude is herb tea and soft music. Solitude, quality solitude, is an assertion of self-worth, because only in the stillness can we hear the truth of our own unique voices.”

Pearl Cleage (1948) American novelist

Source: Deals with the Devil, and Other Reasons to Riot

Truth , Music , Coffee , Solitude

“The television replaced the sound of conversation that was missing from my grandparents' lives.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

“Where every day doesn't start with an alarm clock and end with the television.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

“When I was your age, television was called books.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Books , Age

“If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Idea

“Saturday morning was their unrestricted television time, and they usually took advantage of it to watch a series of cartoon shows that would certainly have been impossible before the discovery of LSD.”

Jeff Lindsay book Dexter in the Dark

Source: Dexter in the Dark

Time

“There are worse things than finding your wife and child dead. You can watch the world do it. You can watch your wife get old and bored. You can watch your kids discover everything in the world you've tried to save them from. Drugs, divorce, conformity, disease. All the nice clean books, music, television. Distraction. These people with dead children, you want to tell them, go ahead. Blame yourself. There are worse things you can do to the people you love than kill them. The regular way is just to watch the world do it. Just read the newspaper.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 3

Love , Children , People , Books

“If watching television doesn't hasten death, it surely manages to make death very inviting; for television so shamelessly sentimentalizes and romanticizes death that it makes the living feel they have missed something - just by staying alive.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

Death , Feeling

“Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

People , Time

“The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.”

Ray Bradbury book The Golden Apples of the Sun

The Murderer (1953)
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)
Context: Then I went in and shot the televisor, that insidious beast, that Medusa, which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little, but myself always going back, going back hoping and waiting until—bang!

People , Night

“So, you're like Angel? (Amanda)
You watch way too much television. Angel has a soul. I don't. (Kyrian)
Now you're back to being scary again. (Amanda)
Baby, you ain't seen scary yet. (Kyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

Angels , Way , Soul , Baby

“That’s pretty much how we get through our own lives, watching television. Smoking crap. Self-medicating. Redirecting our attention. Jacking off. Denial.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

“Best-selling horror fiction is indeed necessarily conservative because it must entertain a large number of readers. It’s like network television. I’m your local cable access station.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

“As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Quoted in The Observer (7 February 1982)
1980s

Age , Perfection

“Now I know I am an intellectual. I saw Malcolm Muggeridge on the television last night, and I understood nearly every word. It all adds up. A bad home, poor diet, not liking punk. I think I will join the library and see what happens.”

Sue Townsend (1946–2014) English writer and humorist

Home , Thinking , Night

“I was watching television and I saw how you stick your fingers in a person's eyes to slow them down."
Grandma Mazur”

Janet Evanovich Two for the Dough

Source: Two for the Dough

Grandma , Personality

“Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950’s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 3
Context: The muffled thunder of dialogue comes through the walls, then a chorus of laughter. Then more thunder. Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.

People , Dead