Garry Shandling was a groundbreaking American comedian, actor, and writer known for his innovative approach to comedy and his influential contributions to television. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Shandling began his career as a comedy writer before transitioning to stand-up comedy, where he quickly gained recognition for his sharp wit and self-referential humor. He became best known for his acclaimed television shows “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” both of which blurred the lines between reality and fiction and revolutionized the sitcom genre. Shandling’s comedic style was marked by his meta-commentary, vulnerability, and ability to satirize the entertainment industry. He earned critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including multiple Emmy Awards. Shandling’s legacy as a comedic trailblazer and television innovator continues to be celebrated, as he remains an inspiration to comedians and television creators alike.

Garry Shandling Quotes

1. “Nice guys finish first. If you don’t know that, then you don’t know where the finish line is.”
— Garry Shandling

2. “I’m dating a homeless woman. It was easier talking her into staying over.”
— Garry Shandling

3. “It’s not the hair on your head that matters. It’s the kind of hair you have inside.”
— Garry Shandling

4. “When I’m not in a relationship, I shave one leg. That way, when I sleep, it feels like I’m with a woman.”
— Garry Shandling

5. “I remember learning to drive on my dad’s lap. Did you guys ever do that? He’d work the brakes. I’d work the wheel. Then I went to take the driver’s test and sat on the examiner’s lap. I failed the exam. But he still writes to me. That’s the really nice part.”
— Garry Shandling

6. “I sold my house this week. I got a pretty good price for it, but it made my landlord mad as hell.”
— Garry Shandling

7. “Was the Buddha married? His wife would say, “Are you just going to sit around like that all day?””
— Garry Shandling

8. “After making love I said to my girl, “Was it good for you too?” And she said, “I don’t think this was good for anybody.””
— Garry Shandling

9. “I’m very loyal in a relationship. Any relationship. When I go out with my mom, I don’t look at other moms and go, “I wonder what her macaroni and cheese tastes like.””
— Garry Shandling

10. “I once made love for an hour and fifteen minutes, but it was the night the clocks are set ahead.”
— Garry Shandling

11. “What I want at my funeral is an actual boxing referee to do a count, and at five, just wave it off and say ‘He’s not getting up.”
— Garry Shandling

12. “I don’t talk about my hair anymore because I’ve matured. I matured and realized it doesn’t matter what you look like. It’s what kind of hair you have inside that counts.”
— Garry Shandling

13. “They should put expiration dates on clothing so we men will know when they go out of style.”
— Garry Shandling

14. “My friends tell me I have an intimacy problem. But they don’t really know me.”
— Garry Shandling

15. “I met a new girl at a barbecue, very pretty, a blond I think. I don’t know, her hair was on fire, and all she talked about was herself. You know these kind of girls: ‘I’m hot. I’m on fire. Me, me, me.’ You know. ‘Help me, put me out.’ Come on, could we talk about me just a little bit?”
— Garry Shandling

16. “Without comedy as a defense mechanism I wouldn’t be able to survive.”
— Garry Shandling

17. “I play basketball on Sundays and I’m a very spiritual guy; I read a lot of Eastern philosophy and I meditate.”
— Garry Shandling

18. “In the year 2525, that song will be even less popular than when it first came out.”
— Garry Shandling

19. “I actually think I’m more of a turtle than Verne is. Where Verne is up on two legs and moving at full speed and doesn’t pull his head into the shell very often, I in reality was five or ten minutes later to every recording session.”
— Garry Shandling

20. “Dr. Phil is hiding something. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he use his last name?”
— Garry Shandling

21. “I’ve never had anyone put on a puppet show to convince me of anything. And I’ve done a lot of stuff. I don’t know that I would put the puppets on when I was pitching a show. This was the head of the studio putting a puppet show on. And I’ll tell you, he wasn’t bad.”
— Garry Shandling

22. “Which is, I’m an optimist that two people can be together to work out their conflicts. And that commitment, I think, might be what love is, because they both grow from their relationship.”
— Garry Shandling

23. “I’m dating a woman now who, evidently, is unaware of it.”
— Garry Shandling

24. “Here’s the thing – I’m single, I haven’t been married, I don’t have kids yet. If I do have kids I would be interested to see them in my life, so here’s a movie for kids and I’m in there and I’m supposed to be kind of funny for kids.”
— Garry Shandling

25. “Carol Burnett was particularly funny. She swore for the first time on television on Larry Sanders.”
— Garry Shandling

26. “Yes, I’m a nice man and I enjoy babies. I’m a sensitive guy. I held a baby the other day and it was the first time either of us cried.”
— Garry Shandling

27. “I have such poor vision I can date anybody.”
— Garry Shandling

28. “My first appearance as a guest on The Tonight Show was in ’81.”
— Garry Shandling

29. “Oysters are supposed to enhance your sexual performance, but they don’t work for me. Maybe I put them on too soon.”
— Garry Shandling

30. “I’m good in bed, actually, and I think I could learn to be a good communicator, too. The only trouble with that is it leads to marriage.”
— Garry Shandling

31. “I’m too shy to express my sexual needs except over the phone to people I don’t know.”
— Garry Shandling

32. “My dog watches me on TV. So, if I may take this opportunity, “No! No! No!””
— Garry Shandling

33. “I think I look great in green, and I’m going to start wearing more green.”
— Garry Shandling

34. “I don’t know how to ground myself without the other actor present.”
— Garry Shandling

35. “You know it’s funny that none of the regular late-night shows now use guest hosts the way Johnny did. No one talks about it much, but it’s curious that they don’t do it. They would each have to be asked the reason why they don’t.”
— Garry Shandling

36. “But I really like hosting, I think it’s a strength of mine. It allows me to improvise, and I love the spontaneity of that, and I think I’m funny behind the desk when interviewing someone.”
— Garry Shandling

37. “I think sometimes I should do more carousing, because I don’t do much and maybe it would be fun occasionally. It’s hard for me to have fun and I’m a serious thinker and a searcher and funny from the front.”
— Garry Shandling

38. “The comic strip is what I looked at, and it’s another reason I did it. The comic strip, where animals would comment on human behaviour, interested me.”
— Garry Shandling

39. “I think it’s one of the main negative emotional ingredients that fuels show business, because there’s so much at stake and the fear of failure looms large.”
— Garry Shandling

40. “I like going into nature and that’s where I’m happiest.”
— Garry Shandling

41. “I don’t know why men are so fascinated with television and I think it has something to do with – if I may judge from my own father, who used to sit and stare at the TV while my mother was speaking to him – I think that’s a man’s way of tuning out.”
— Garry Shandling

42. “I am pretty tenacious as a perfectionist in terms of getting something right.”
— Garry Shandling

43. “First of all, I’m not the kind of guy that likes to rehash the show and so forth and so on.”
— Garry Shandling

44. “I’m not a party guy. I don’t carouse very much.”
— Garry Shandling

45. “Women need to know that not all guys are going to hurt them the way that the guy did before they started dating me. I know guys I wouldn’t go out with.”
— Garry Shandling

46. “The only way I would go back to hosting would be if it were something entirely new. It would prevent me from wanting to host a standard-fare kind of talk show.”
— Garry Shandling

47. “I guess he wanted to see a little more sexual activity because in real life, in bed I think less is more and let the woman come to me. Frankly, I don’t even need a woman there.”
— Garry Shandling