Actor

I remember once they sent me over to read for a show called 'Mork and Mindy.' I heard gales of laughter, then Robin Williams walked out. I had to follow Robin Williams.

Before 'Animal House' came out to open up a huge market, there just weren't parts for young guys. That genre of film was my ticket in... One of my first jobs was with Bill Murray in 'Stripes.'

I don't put my nose up at anything if the material is good.

I didn't get a lot of industry action after 'Fast Times.'

I think I started out because I was desperate for approval and acceptance and praise. Some actors never break away from that. They're after that validation their whole life.

It's very easy to make a movie that confirms the worst in us.

I'm not the comic innovator that Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy are. I can't just come out with an incredible line.

I was welcomed into some nightclubs in Chicago that no white man's ever been in.

My first time in front of a camera, I said, 'Wonder Woman, I'm so glad you're here.' That's how I made a living.

My father was an attorney.

People are flooded with information every day, and normal guys everywhere try valiantly to stay up with all the technology. But they can't quite do it. I know how those guys feel.

The message I always received was God is good. You're bad. Try harder. I pretty much kept my hand up at anything that represented God.

The only people in my whole life that have ever called me Edward are the police because it's on my license.

I'm proud to have been in some of the films that continue to be a special part of people's lives.

Personally, I feel that if you shoot off 200,000 rounds, and your lead character pulls out a pistol and never gets hit, there's a sense of jeopardy that's lost. It becomes a little less exciting when things don't make sense.

I was a lousy waiter, dealing with people and having people in your face like that.

The '80s was a great decade for comedy.

If I get to tell good stories with good people, that's good enough for me.

I haven't always played nice guys. In 'Gremlins,' I was a conceited, pompous braggart, and I was a redneck chauvinist in the TV movie 'A Matter of Sex.' But I really prefer sympathetic roles.

When I was a kid growing up, I liked the sympathetic characters played by Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon, and James Stewart. They were my heroes. No matter what happened to them, they survived with their dignity intact.