Robin Williams

1951–2014 · American actor and stand-up comedian

Robin Williams was born in Chicago on 21 July 1951 and began performing stand-up in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976, starting out at the Holy City Zoo. He became famous for improvisational speed — in Good Morning, Vietnam he was allowed to play the role without a script — which is part of why lines he merely delivered are so often mistaken for lines he invented. The diapers joke is one of those: he said it as Tom Dobbs in Barry Levinson’s Man of the Year (2006), and the Center for Mark Twain Studies calls him “the man most responsible for the popularity the aphorism now enjoys” — a very different claim from authorship. Williams died on 11 August 2014.

Traced to source

4 quotes we’ve traced to Robin Williams

“Death is nature's way of saying, 'Your table is ready.'”

Attributed

“I wonder what chairs think about all day: 'Oh, here comes another asshole.'”

Attributed

“Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason”

Disputed

“You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it”

Disputed

Not actually Robin Williams

Often misattributed to Robin Williams

Famous lines widely pinned on Robin Williams that we’ve traced to someone else.

“If you remember the '60s, you really weren't there”

actually Charles Fleischer

“Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason”

actually Anonymous

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