Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Marketing is what gets you noticed.
It's a bit disconcerting being treated like Madonna.
I have always worried about things more than I should.
I'm more critical of the films I make than anyone else.
It's not easy to take a sit-com and turn it into a feature.
But generally speaking, I tend to be quiet and introspective.
I consider myself more of a visual comedian than a physical one.
I think in many ways Johnny English is a more believable character.
I'm not looking for anything other than an interesting role to play.
You're about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest.
I don't really have plans like that [move towards more dramatic acting].
I would never be a television presenter. It's not something I could ever do.
I want to express myself in a different way. I have a performing inclination.
The path of my life is strewn with cow pats from the devil's own satanic herd!
Your services might be as useful as a barbershop on the steps of a guillotine.
But I always feel that whatever I do, I could do better. I suppose it is perfectionism.
I don't think you should be too absolutist about what you play and what you don't play.
[Maigret] is more internal. I think if we made more of these I might let him out a bit.
I'm not a naturally funny man. I find that I can only be funny, if I become someone else.
Look, if I'd wanted a lecture on the rights of man, I'd have gone to bed with Martin Luther.
I mean I can do it when I'm very relaxed, and with good friends, then I think I can be amusing.
Lord, thy one-liners are as good as thy tricks. Thou art indeed an all-round family entertainer.
Nope, I don't enjoy work generally. Not because I'm lazy; it's just all so stressful and worrying.
I'm not a collector. I don't like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate.
It was the challenge of that that I found daunting, but also engaging and interesting [to play Maigret].
I would return to the Blackadder character if the opportunity came up. I have no qualms about that at all.
The older you get, the more you realise how happenstance... has helped to determine your path through life.
If you're a serious actor, it's when you know you're going to die tomorrow that you really start to feel it.
loved the show as a child and felt I could not do it justice. [on turning down the role of the new Doctor Who
I think you're bound to get a sense of any character that you play. It's not something you often do in comedy.
And what's interesting about him as a comic character is that the custard pie hardly ever ends up on his face.
I like to juggle with one ball at a time. Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time.
Art is something that nobody laughs at and nobody makes any money out of is the attitude, which I would dispute.
I like to relish words and sentences, and phraseology, and there's not much facility for that [playing Maigret].
I find his films about as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and discovering there's a gas bill tied to it.
My personal problem is that I take the business of film-making so seriously that I find it very difficult to relax.
To Be Successful You Don't Need Beautiful Face And Heroic Body, What You Need is Skillful Mind And Ability To Perform
Mr. Bean is at his best when he is not using words, but I am equally at home in both verbal and nonverbal expression.
I tend to play rather odd men. People that are slightly odd or eccentric, or have a more particular attitude to life.
I would never wish to say that I've finally waved goodbye to any character, it's just that the emphasis tends to shift.
The job is interesting, and the task is difficult, but the man [Maigret] is just a decent man doing a very ordinary job.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is the most over-rated human being since Judas Iscariot won the A.D.31 'Best Disciple' competition.
[Georges] Simenon could be very brave like that. You never quite know what you're going to get or how the story's going to be told.
A law which attempts to say you can criticise and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.
I can be reasonably funny and light-hearted when I'm in the company of good friends, but I'm not a jokesmith. I tend to be quite serious.
Funny things tend not to happen to me. I am not a natural comic. I need to think about things a lot before I can be even remotely amusing.
I have to say that I've always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can't let go.
Certainly in the second film [Maigret's Dead Man], which is quite a more unpleasant and darker story, it's quite different in tone and feel.
I suddenly think the job of acting is a difficult one. It's not as flip, irrelevant and shallow a calling as I thought it was in the Eighties.
I'm as poor as a church mouse, that's just had an enormous tax bill on the very day his wife ran off with another mouse, taking all the cheese.