My friend Harry Nilsson used to say the definition of an artist was someone who rode way ahead of the herd and was sort of the lookout. Now you don't have to be that to be an artist. You can be right smack-dab in the middle of the herd. If you are, you'll be the richest.

-- Albert Brooks (2012) [1]

 

Singer Harry Nilsson recalls sleeping off a drunk one night on the floor at Brooks' small house in the Hollywood hills. His host appeared before him dressed in a clown suit and whispered his name like a beckoning ghost.

-- Time Magazine (1975) [2]