Norman Lear

“It was very important to me that Archie have a likable face, because the point of the character was to show that…

— Norman Lear

When I countered that Archie Bunker didn't have to put down a race of people to say that, he replied, 'and you're…

— Norman Lear

I don't know how you can look back with regret if you're at a moment when everything seems fine.

— Norman Lear

Culturally, I think 'All in the Family' was universal enough to have good timing at any time.

— Norman Lear

As H.L. Mencken once said, 'nobody ever when broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.' Our show [All in the Family]…

— Norman Lear

Success is how you collect your minutes. You spend millions of minutes to reach one triumph, one moment, then you spend maybe…

— Norman Lear

But you know, my dad called me the laziest white kid he ever met. When I screamed back at him that he…

— Norman Lear

The trafficking of sex and violence is comes after the demand for ratings.

— Norman Lear

I guess because the shows were activist in their own way - the marriage of my public activism and my career activism,…

— Norman Lear

The evidence seems clear that those business which actively serve their many constitutencies in creative, morally thoughtful ways also, over the long…

— Norman Lear

I think that of most leaders in religion as power brokers. They give orders, in a sense, to an audience every week,…

— Norman Lear

In one question you are expressing a world of opinion. Because it is you who thinks that America has been mistakenly starting…

— Norman Lear

Life is about having a good time.

— Norman Lear

Ed Simmons and I became stars in the emerging medium of television. We were new and fresh, just like TV at the…

— Norman Lear

When I got married for the third time, and I had children from my other marriage there, that's what I said when…

— Norman Lear

I stop and look at traffic accidents. I won't hang around, but when I hear something is terrible, as bad as it…

— Norman Lear

I wanted to just do a one-act play for 26 minutes, with commercials at the beginning and end. For years, I couldn't…

— Norman Lear

TV that people will never see, that giant international corporations will never touch, will never pay your salary.

— Norman Lear

I never met who I really wanted to meet, and that was Charlie Chaplin.

— Norman Lear

You're in the business - when you're a writer, producer, director - to get ratings.

— Norman Lear

Bud [Yorkin] broke out big when he did 'The Fred Astaire Show' and won four Emmys. His wife at the time suggested…

— Norman Lear

I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.

— Norman Lear

We mocked that concept ['movies are better than ever'] by doing a sketch that was about a theater trying to get one…

— Norman Lear

What happens at the average church or synagogue or mosque is that I don't know many priests or ministers or rabbis who…

— Norman Lear

I got a call from an agent to come to New York City, and write for the 'Ford Star Revue.' Because at…

— Norman Lear