DRAGON: Life Lessons from Robin Williams

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Life Lessons from Robin Williams

By InterviewPhotographed by Michael HalsbandStyled by Wilfredo RosadoApril 26, 2021

Welcome to Life Lessons. This week, we revisit some highlights from our August 1986 interview with the late, great comedian Robin Williams, as told to Nancy Collins. Sit down, relax—you just might learn a thing or two.

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“Sometimes [comedy] is legalized insanity.”

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“I stopped drinking…that helped a lot. And my son, Zach, keeps me grounded a bit. He has that look in his eyes, like, ‘Oh, father, must you do that?’ Like Sylvester in the cartoons. He sometimes says, ‘Don’t be funny. Don’t say that. Don’t say ‘fuck it.’ We have those rules. Everything that you do, they pick up on, and you realize how precious time is. I’ve been on the road now for a month. I’ll come back and he’ll be a totally different creature.”

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“‘Sharing the childbirth.’ Bullshit. You’re not doing anything unless you’re there circumcising yourself with a chainsaw.”

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“[Women are] wonderful—they’re amazing creatures. You can never learn enough! They’re addicting in the most amazing sense. They have so many levels. There’s the physical level, which is a lot of fun. There’s this emotional level, which is extremely mercurial. Every 28 days you have that massive mood swing, where nature’s going, “Check, please.” It turns your body into an Etch-a-Sketch, and then you start over. Men may have wars, but women have their period. Men go off and kill each other, but women say nasty things, which is even better. Women are incredibly intuitive. If anybody on the planet is going to evolve to the next level, that telekinetic thing, women will.”

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“Occasionally people say, ‘Why can’t you just be you?’ But this is part of being me, too, the performing. I sometimes get tired of people saying, ‘Well, what are you really like?’”

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“Even after years, you still find out [more about your partner]. You grow, you break through to other levels, too, if you allow it to happen. As you get a little older, you mellow and think, ‘Oh, I see. Now I understand why we’re hanging out.’ For instance, I never thought gardening would be fun—sitting around going, ‘Oh, look. A bud. Honey! Sin semilla!’”

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“As hot as this business can be, it can also be just as cold. People become indifferent. It’s a double-edged thing.”

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“Sometimes you make a decision just because you love something.”

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“What’s to envy? Things are nice for me. What am I going to say? ‘God, I need more money than this’? Bullshit.”

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“All I need is books and more computer games. I don’t want any more land.”

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“[Hollywood is] the type of place where people don’t eat their young—they put them on hold.”

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“I quit everything. You have to. A kid forces you to do that. You don’t need drugs when you have a kid. You’re awake and paranoid anyway. Who needs anything else?”

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“I heard a great quote: ‘You have a drug problem?’ ‘No problem. Everybody’s got it.’ Everyone will pump you up if you’re ready, because it also gives them some control over you. You’ll tolerate conversations with people you wouldn’t even talk to in the daylight.”

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“When something works, you don’t need to plaster over it.”

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“Drinking bloats you up. But you can come back. Your body says, ‘Okay, I’ll rebuild the cells if you give me time. I’ll put your skin back, I’ll work on you, I’ll deflate you. When you lose the weight and if you start running again, I’ll get rid of as many toxins as I can.’ You get a second chance.”

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“I have no desire to go anywhere near drugs. People say, ‘Aren’t you tempted?’ No, because of the ridiculousness of it. I used to say this on stage, ‘Cocaine a drug that makes you paranoid and impotent—mmmm, boy. That’s a lot of fun.’”

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“I don’t know what people know about me. What they don’t know won’t hurt me.”

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