When I got to New York, I had no place to sleep. The pay from ‘Sesame Street’ wasn’t enough to rent an apartment. I was staying on people’s couches. I stayed in the dressing room until they found out. I stayed with Jim Henson and his family for a week, and I wanted to do that permanently. I didn’t dare ask, though. Caroll Spinney Read Quote
I was suffering a divorce, and I was very unhappy because my children were very young. It hit me when a woman, a fan, was chatting with me. She was pleased to meet Big Bird because her children liked him and liked the show, but she didn’t know that my face was streamed with tears. Caroll Spinney Read Quote
I’ve learned to say, ‘I’m a friend of Big Bird. He even taught me how to sound like him.’ Caroll Spinney Read Quote
Most people don’t hold a job for 45 years. They pass on or want to retire. I don’t want to retire. My real goal is to do 50 years on ‘Sesame Street,’ and I only got 4-and-a-half years to go. Caroll Spinney Read Quote
You can exaggerate with puppets. You’re not trying to look like real people. The way the Muppets are designed is really appealing. Puppets are best if they’re exaggerated creatures. Caroll Spinney Read Quote
The other puppeteers are really good, often when they are singing together, they go left, right, left… But if they are all moving to the left, I’m moving to the right. Big Bird and Oscar, that’s okay, because they are individuals anyway. Caroll Spinney Read Quote
When I was eight, I bought my first puppet. It was a monkey, and I paid five cents for it. I collected some scrap wood and built myself a puppet theatre. I made 32 cents with my first show, which I thought was pretty good, and that’s when I knew I would be a puppeteer when I grew up. Caroll Spinney Read Quote
I was asked to be on ‘The Colbert Report’ last year as Big Bird and Oscar. But when we got there, we discovered they wanted both characters on at the same time. Stephen Colbert didn’t know one man plays them both. We called Joey Mazzarino, our head writer, who’s a very good puppeteer as well. He agreed to zip over and do Oscar. Caroll Spinney Read Quote
