John Cleese quotes - page 3

Who's ever going to write a film in which I get the girl? Me! (John Cleese)
I love having different cultures around, but when the parent culture kind of dissipates, you're left thinking, 'Well, what's going on?'
John Cleese
I just think that sometimes we hang onto people or relationships long after they've ceased to be of any use to either of you. I'm always meeting new people, and my list of friends seems to change quite a bit.
John Cleese
Now most people do not want an ordinary life in which they do a job well, earn the respect of their collaborators and competitors, bring up a family and have friends. That's not enough any more, and I think that is absolutely tragic - and I'm not exaggerating - that people feel like a decent, ordinary, fun life is no longer enough.
John Cleese
I'm always meeting new people, and my list of friends seems to change quite a bit.
John Cleese
English television from the Fifties to the Nineties was the least bad in the world, and now it's just as bad as it is anywhere.
John Cleese
I was always a sports nut but I've lost interest now in whether one bunch of mercenaries in north London is going to beat another bunch of mercenaries from west London.
John Cleese
I tend to have an odd split in my mind: I tend to look at it as a writer and when the writing thing is OK and I'm happy with it, then I put on my actor's hat.
John Cleese
Michael Palin decided to give up on his considerable comedy talents to make those dreadfully tedious travel shows. Have you ever tried to watch one?
John Cleese
Some actors, I think, want to feel that they are as creative as the writer. And the answer is, frankly, they're not.
John Cleese
I would say that I began with a very edgy, very driven personality and after a sufficient amount of therapy over many, many years, I managed to become rather relaxed and happy. (John Cleese)
I can't tell you how scary it can be walking onto a movie and suddenly joining this family, it's like going to somebody else's Christmas dinner, everyone knows everyone, and you're there and you're not quite sure what you're supposed to be doing.
John Cleese
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.
John Cleese
You don't have to be the Dalai Lama to tell people that life's about change.
John Cleese
If life were fair, Dan Quayle would be making a living asking 'Do you want fries with that?'
John Cleese
The English contribution to world cuisine: the chip.
John Cleese
Don't let anyone tell you what you ought to like... Some wines that some experts think are absolutely exquisite don't appeal to me at all.
John Cleese
I can never do better than 'Fawlty Towers,' whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.
John Cleese
In Britain, girls seem to be either bright or attractive. In America, that's not the case. They're both.
John Cleese
England is a fairly envious little country and it's embodied in the press. They don't like anyone being more distinguished than they are.
John Cleese
Filming takes a lot out of you. It really does. It's immensely demanding, and you have to put the rest of your life in the icebox until you do your final shot. (John Cleese)
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.
John Cleese
When you've been doing comedy for forty years, you really do know most of the jokes. And even if you don't know a specific joke, you can pretty much guess what it's going to be.
John Cleese
Most of the bad taste I've been accused of has been generic bad taste; it's been making fun of an idea as opposed to a person.
John Cleese
I think you can write very good comedy without a partner, but what I love about it, working with a partner, is that you get to places you'd never get on your own. It's like when God was designing the world and decided we couldn't have children without a partner; it was a way of mixing up the genes so you'd get a more interesting product.
John Cleese