You do not have to be the Dalai Lama to tell people that life's about change.- John Cleese
Wine is wonderful stuff. But so many people are put off by the snobbery of it.
Who's ever going to write a film in which I get the girl? Me!
When the target audience is American teenage kids, you can have problems. My generation prized really fine acting and writing. Sometimes you have to go back to the basic principles which underpin great visual comedy.
The thrill I got discovering Buster Keaton when I was growing up was so exciting. He was one of the greats.
The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, often to a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting.
The English contribution to world cuisine - the chip.
It seems astounding to me now that the video games are perhaps as important as the movie themselves. And people will spend 2 or 3 years obsessing about the video game in exactly the same way that they'd be obsessing about the movie if they were working on that.
If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
If life were fair, Dan Quayle would be making a living asking 'Do you want fries with that?'
If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth.
If God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?
I was very sad to hear of the death of Ronnie Barker, who was such a warm, friendly and encouraging presence to have when I started in television. He was also a great comic actor to learn from.
I want to write a book which is the history of comedy.
I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that is to get rid of all my other desires.
