John Cleese Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about John Cleese

John Cleese Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational John Cleese quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

Toffs could get up to speed. But Ben at least knew roughly — 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

When I was in school, I was beaten every 30 minutes. It never did me any harm except for some psychological mal-adjustments and blurred vision. — John Cleese

Basil Fawlty was an easy character for me. For some reason, portraying a mean uptight incompetent bully comes naturally to me. — John Cleese

When you're being stalked by an angry mob with raspberries, the first thing to do is to release a tiger. — John Cleese

Only an obsessional procrastinator would cry, 'Let's run for our lives, but not till Wednesday afternoon.' Back — John Cleese

It was an astonishing fantasy but it showed me what even apparently sensible people can believe if they really want to. I — John Cleese

Loving your neighbour as much as yourself is practically bloody impossible? You might as well have a commandment that states,'Thou shalt fly'. — John Cleese

I can do anything I want, I'm eccentric! — John Cleese

I get bored easily. I've been bored most of my life. — John Cleese

Telling people how to be creative is easy - being creative is difficult. — John Cleese

Yes it's her husband. She hasn't got over it. Died thirty years ago. — John Cleese

I don't want to have to start being unselfish again. The great thing about being on your own is you do what you damned well like. — John Cleese

Why write about the past? Well, there's more of it. — John Cleese

Wine is wonderful stuff. But so many people are put off by the snobbery of it. — John Cleese

I wanted to be John Cleese. It took me some time to realise that the job was taken. — Douglas Adams

Creativity is not the possession of some special talent.
It's about the willingness to play. — John Cleese

A satisfied customer. We should have him stuffed. — John Cleese

But then acting is all about faking. We're all very good at faking things that we have no competence with. — John Cleese

You don't have to be the Dalai Lama to tell people that life's about change. — John Cleese

Laughter is a force for democracy. — 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

Either people walk round dressed as chickens or they listen to Beethoven. — John Cleese

Well, the only way I can get a leading-man role is if I write it. — John Cleese

I think that I feel an indignation when I don't understand something. — John Cleese

He who laughs most, learns best — John Cleese

Terry Gilliam has spoken scathingly about my preference for physical comfort. I have come to the conclusion that this is very much his problem. — 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've always found life quite difficult to explain to people or to myself. — John Cleese

I have several times made a poor choice by avoiding a necessary confrontation. — 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

His persona seemed very odd to me: it was as though he'd once seen an intellectual, and had spent the rest of his life impersonating him. — John Cleese

I've always called myself a writer/performer, not an actor because I basically write what I perform. — John Cleese

Nothing will stop you being creative more effectively as the fear of making a
mistake. — John Cleese

Who's ever going to write a film in which I get the girl? Me! — John Cleese

It's too difficult to start right from scratch and try and be funny out of the blue. — John Cleese

I realised that I really disliked him, and I knew exactly why: he didn't know the difference between being solemn and being serious. — John Cleese

What is absurd is not the teachings of the founders of religion, it's what followers subsequently make of it. — John Cleese

It's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. — John Cleese

We don't know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops. — John Cleese

If life were fair, Dan Quayle would be making a living asking 'Do you want fries with that?' — John Cleese

I was a terrible dancer. I dance like an Englishman. — John Cleese

Sense of humor is so much more subjective than anyone believes. — John Cleese

I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that's to get rid of all my other desires. — John Cleese

A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people. — John Cleese

I don't miss London much. I find it crowded, vast and difficult to get around. Cabs are incredibly expensive. — John Cleese

Come to me. I want to plow you like a Calgary driveway at Christmas. — John Cleese

A man will give up almost anything except his suffering. — John Cleese

My hovercraft is full of eels. — John Cleese

If God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat? — John Cleese

So . . . suddenly there were no tapes of The 1948 Show. It was no more. It was an ex-series. — 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

The World is insane. With tiny spots of sanity, here and there ... Not the other way around! — John Cleese

I think it takes a long time, as you get older, to realize just how crazy the world is, just how ridiculous it all is. — John Cleese

If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time to be considering alternative strategies. — John Cleese

It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand. ~ Brian Stimpson, Clockwise
— John Cleese

Once we've made a decision, we are efficient only if we go through with it decisively, undistracted by doubts about its correctness. — John Cleese

One minute, I was saying, "Hello, Mr. Bunny!" and smiling at its sweet little face and funny floppy ears. The next, the fucker savaged me. — John Cleese

Whose fault is it, then? Dennis Compton's (Basil Fawlty) — John Cleese

The Americans are just more enthusiastic and more likely to engage in hyperbole. — John Cleese

It was not fair and therefore unworthy of my respect. It was as simple as that. — John Cleese

I have a tendency sometimes to get too logical with what I'm writing, just because I want it to be kind of perfect. — John Cleese

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play — John Cleese

Yes, I know it's easy to make fun of the organised churches, but has it occurred to anyone to wonder why it's so easy? — John Cleese

I think we're all born with a sense of humor. Creativity is another thing though. — 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

John Cleese ... he cannot sing and keeps a locked piano in his room to prove it. — John Cleese

I think that money spoils most things, once it becomes the primary motivating force. — John Cleese

Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating. — John Cleese

You have to create boundaries of space and then you have to create boundaries of time. — John Cleese

The Americans all love 'The Holy Grail', and the English all love 'Life Of Brian', and I'm afraid on this one, I side with the English. — John Cleese

Laughter destroys any divisions between people. — John Cleese

Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited. — John Cleese

Cats are very intelligent at all the things that cats need to be intelligent about. — John Cleese

There's something about watching an animal that puts you in contact with where we came from and what we're still a part of. — John Cleese

It's a plastic surgeon you need, not a doctor — John Cleese

Students who laugh more- learn more. Students who laugh more earn more. — John Cleese

While you're being creative, nothing is wrong. There's no such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the breakthrough. — John Cleese

When we hold a World Championship for a particular sport, we invite teams from other countries to play as well. — John Cleese

The most creative people have this childlike facility to play. — 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

Filming is like a long air journey: there's so much hanging around and boredom that they keep giving you food. — John Cleese

Oh, I could spend my life having this conversation - look - please try to understand before one of us dies — John Cleese

John Cleese once told me he'd do anything for money. So I offered him a pound to shut up, and he took it. — Eric Idle

Give your mind as long as possible to come up with something original. — John Cleese

How to defend yourself against a banana — John Cleese

I want to write a book which is the history of comedy. — John Cleese

To be creative you must create a space for yourself where you can be undisturbed ... separate from everyday concerns. — John Cleese

I think the problem with people like this is that they are so stupid that they have no idea how stupid they are. — John Cleese

The English contribution to world cuisine - the chip. — John Cleese

The French have so many civil wars, they can win one now and again. — John Cleese

Manuel will show you to your rooms - if you're lucky. — 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

Tension is wonderful for making people laugh. — John Cleese

Creativity is not a talent; it's a way of operating. — John Cleese

Life is a terminal disease, and it is sexually transmitted. — John Cleese

What I've always wanted to do is be as funny as possible. — John Cleese

The sad thing about true stupidity is that you can do absolutely nothing about it. — John Cleese

Too many people confuse being serious with being solemn. — John Cleese