I feel it is my FIRST duty to MAKE an unprecedented compact with my countrymen. Not an inaugural address, not a fireside chat, not a CAMPAIGN speech - just a little straight talk among friends.

My FIRST job had me miscast as a bubbly shopgirl; I was pathologically shy and, thus, tended to replace human SPEECH with excessive head gestures. It was like being waited on by Harpo Marx.

Hip-hop has done more for race relations than most cultural icons; and I say save MARTIN LUTHER KING, because his 'I Have A Dream' SPEECH was realized when OBAMA was elected into office.

I give a speech at some colleges and CORPORATIONS called 'Performing Your Life: An EVENING with Jeffrey Tambor.' I GET asked a lot of questions, and PEOPLE say, 'Your stories are WONDERFUL. You should write a book.'

Claims of a decisive 'turning point' in any election are often overblown - more often, such a moment MERELY crystallizes a change that's been days or weeks in the MAKING. But you can make a REAL case that OBAMA's Jefferson-Jackson Day speech is a pivot point in America history.

By silencing SPEECH, the new LEFT makes life more DANGEROUS by LEAVING VIOLENCE as the only option. Maybe that's what they want.

I started doing STANDUP because of Hugh GRANT's best-man speech in 'Four Weddings,' which is BASICALLY a standup ROUTINE.

Toward the END of the 1964 PRESIDENTIAL campaign, REAGAN gives a SPEECH on behalf of Barry Goldwater. It was LIKE a screen test for a new career.

It usually takes me more than THREE WEEKS to prepare a GOOD impromptu speech.

People get up and say, 'I didn't prepare a SPEECH because I didn't THINK I would win.' Well, that's DUMB.