Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Death is a fickle hen, and random are her eggs.
The busier you are, the less time you have to make decisions.
The only shared reality we have is things we have seen on television.
I assume everyone around me is older because they look more responsible.
Write what makes you laugh not what you think will make someone else laugh.
My 11-year-old thinks I'm cool because he watches things I've made on YouTube.
I briefly thought of becoming a priest but quickly saw that would be ridiculous.
Listening to classical music is a journey not a state; it's an activity not a meditation.
Any president's second term ends up being quite messy. It never goes quite according to plan.
The last thing I want to do is use my comedy as a partisan tool or as a method for preaching.
Never underestimate the intelligence of the audience; make good programmes, and they will come.
I find it an easy way into writing pieces is to think what the character's voice is like, and start from there.
I'm a bit of a political geek anyway, so you tend to write how you think the rhythms of an administration will go.
There's something inherently comic about the fact that politicians make things worse by worrying too much about something.
There is still an element of the BBC that feels it is somehow wrong, or it will be open to criticism, if it makes more money.
I always think you've just got to move on. If you keep wallowing in the thing that you've done for a while you get a bit stale.
I refuse to work evenings or weekends. If a script sees my character meeting for dinner, I put a line through the words and make them meet for lunch.
As a gut thing, my next project is always the complete opposite of the thing I've just done. So if I've spent a lot of time doing film, I might then do some radio.
When I'm making something, I've always felt in charge and therefore able to call the shots. But what you've got to do is stop that turning into arrogance or despotism!
I kind of like that thing of you being caught up. You think you can judge someone, and before you know it, you've been swayed by them, and actually you want more of them.
Joe Biden is that special combination of someone who is very talented and influential, but when he starts speaking, there's inevitably going to be headlines written about something he said.
When you do a movie as opposed to a TV show, it's always tempting to think everything has to be big and exaggerated and spectacular. And in fact, a lot of the funniest comedy films have been very intimate.
When I started off, I always used to do parodies and impressions, mimicking people... and then institutions. You become aware that some institutions have their own language. You almost define yourself by how you speak.
I started quite young at school, compering a charity event at an old people's home. I would do stand up and impressions and enjoyed the laughter. It's very addictive. It's a lovely sensation to say something and hear a whole room laugh.
Governments, whether right or left, have become commissioners-in-chief, nudging and cajoling networks into preferred business models without the slightest sensitivity or awareness of what the public wants or the TV industry is capable of.
We only now talk to our own, on Facebook and social media we talk to people, we friend and we like and we follow people who agree with us and rather than engaging with people who disagree with us, we unfollow them, we block them, we non-platform them.
What's funny about that office is it's entirely dependent on how close you are to the president, because the president decides what your role will be. If you get on with the president, that's great; if you fall out with the president, power can go away.
I hate the idea of labels and saying you are member of one party or another and signing up to all sorts of policies that you don't have a view on or don't believe in. Because I'm not a politician, I don't have to be consistent in what I say and how I behave.
It almost seems like anyone who doesn't seem political in any way is at an advantage. It's almost like anti-politics. A stage where anyone who acts - and it is an act - as if they have nothing to do with the way that daily politics works is lauded as some kind of superstar human being.
There's a guy on YouTube ... who just re-voices Donald Trump. He does a thing called Sassy Trump which is just to take Donald Trump's words and revoice them. Doesn't change them ...and strangely enough it just makes you listen to what Trump is saying. I think the biggest answer to comedy against Trump is Trump's own words.
It seemed like after the 80s and 90s there came a sort of weird time in politics, where something like Spitting Image was no longer feasible because politicians weren't the big personalities that they once were. But now it seems like we're coming out of that, I mean we've got Boris Johnson, and Trump overseas, and Jeremy Corbyn.
It's still very relevant to how politics works within government, but in terms of the way into politics for an outsider, no, I don't think that would work. I don't know what would, other than... people are going online, and finding the single issue topics. I mean, look at the junior doctors' strike at the moment, or benefit cuts. That sort of cut across parties, and real pressure was felt in the government from inside and out.
I don't think I could ever reach the giddy heights of the inspired comedy and tragedy that's happening now in Washington. I mean, it's mesmerizing to watch but it's also scary. For me, the scariest thing about it is all those people who were so absolutely opposed to Donald Trump before he got elected, and then have just drifted away and kept quiet. It goes back to: We've always got to be vigilant about democracy because it can go wrong.
I think it's a slightly crazy time actually, it's very difficult to satirise because each of politicians is in their own way enacting a commentary on the world of politics anyway. To then comment on them just feels like adding another layer. I find it very difficult to do jokes about current politics because for me it's all about... I actually genuinely want people to be involved properly, you know? I mean, the number of people who don't vote... Frightening, really.