Gene Wilder
Remember actor Gene Wilder with these 13 quotes from him. Pictured: Gene Wilder on April 5, 2010 at a book signing in Los Angeles, California. Getty Images/Dr. Billy Ingram

Gene Wilder, the Hollywood legend who starred in such films as “Blazing Saddles,” “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory” and “Stir Crazy” has died. He was 83 years old. According to the actor’s nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, Wilder’s death was due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

Some of Wilder’s best roles were in films directed by Mel Brooks, such as “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein.” “We are not interested in polite titters, we want the audience rolling on the floor and falling about. Mel works on his feet — it's a hit and miss, hit and miss, hit and miss. Then in the editing he will take out the misses,” Wilder once said of working with Brooks.

While the actor is now gone, he has left us with memorable quotes from his long career. Here are 13 quotes from Wilder’s personal life and films.

  • “I'm not so funny. Gilda [Gilda Radner] was funny. I'm funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while. But she was funny. She spent more time worrying about being liked than anything else.”
  • “I never thought of it as God. I didn't know what to call it. I don't believe in devils, but demons I do because everyone at one time or another has some kind of a demon, even if you call it by another name, that drives them.”
  • “So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.”
  • “If I can make my wife laugh, I know I'm on the right track.”
  • “It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole fizzy lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!” (“Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”)
  • “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.” (“Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”)
  • “Come with me and you'll be, in a world of pure imagination, take a look and you'll see, into your imagination.” (“Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”)
  • “If you're not gonna tell the truth, then why start talking?”
  • “The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last.” (“Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”)
  • “Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.” (“Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”)
  • “What did you expect? Welcome, sonny? Make yourself at home? Marry my daughter? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.” (“Blazing Saddles”)
  • “If the good lord intended us to walk, he never would’ve invented roller skates.” (“Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”)
  • “But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted… He lived happily ever after.” (“Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”)
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