Robin Williams: No. You can't...I mean, everytime I DO, then it becomes UN-funny. It's like a clown in lead-based paint. [clawing at his face] Ooh, oh come on, boys and girls, laugh...PLEASE. It's THAT kind of thing. Laughter - it's an untrollable thing. The only time we make faces like that is during sex, and you know, we laugh then, too.
Stoner: Really. They laugh, do they? I'm so sorry. Look, we know this side of you - the quick wit, but you were trained dramatically...
Williams: ..at Juilliard, yeh.
Stoner: So, you would be comfortable with Mike Nichols' ensemble directing...
Williams: Very. It gave me those limits on my style that makes it fun. Like being bound, without handcuffs [laughs] bound in a way that's pleasant, bound with ...
Stoner: He's going. He's going away from us, folks.
Williams: He's going. He's coming back. I'll be good. [spanking himself] Don't run away. What are you afraid of? [mock seriousness] I'm back now. Yeh, those restraints can help you create a great character, you know, as a reactor. My God, Jack Benny made a great career out of it. I mean, Armand [his Birdcage character] does some outrageous things. He has his moments, but mostly he's just trying to keep everything rolling, like the plates spinning on the Ed Sullivan show [in an Ed Sullivan voice]. Right now, Amy Goldman and her dancing plates...
Stoner: I'm going to give you a compliment now. I know you well enough to know you have trouble taking compliments without taking the edge off with a joke. But I'm going to do it anyhow, and you're going to take it. You don't mind letting the other person get the laughs, and that's not always true of comic actors.
Williams: Well, thanks. You couldn't work any other way - or shouldn't. It's like a great piece of music - like a concerto with six different instruments, and you've got one of them and I LOVE my instrument. I...sorry, you were right. It was a compliment, and I couldn't take it.