John Cleese famous quotes

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

#Writing #Creativity #Way

The real religion is about the understanding that if we can only still our egos for a few seconds, we might have a chance of experiencing something that is divine in nature. But in order to do that, we have to slice away at our egos and try to get them down to a manageable size, and then still work some practiced light meditation. So real religion is about reducing our egos, whereas all the churches are interested in is egotistical activities, like getting as many members and raising as much money and becoming as important and high-profile and influential as possible.
-- John Cleese

#Real #Light #Order

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

#Jobs #Fun #Thinking

You can't make Christ funny. He's self-aware, he's too flexible within the situation. It's rigidity, it's when the ego takes over and the behavior becomes inappropriate that it becomes funny.
-- John Cleese

#Self #Ego #Inappropriate

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

#Funny #Animal #Meat

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

#Writing #Perfect #Want

The most creative people have this childlike facility to play.
-- John Cleese

#Play #People #Creative

When you've only got few days of rehearsal before you're in the studio, it's wonderful to start off with people that you have good, friendly, tolerable relationships to start with, for the simple reason that you don't have to spend 24 hours figuring out how sensitive they are, and can you give them a line reading, or how do you have to give them direction.
-- John Cleese

#Reading #Good Friend #Simple

The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen, the feeling that whatever happens, it's okay... you're either free to play, or you're not.
-- John Cleese

#Essence #Play #Feelings

On movies, I like to involve the cast in the writing of the script. I like to have a rehearsal period, after which I do the last draft, which gives me a chance to incorporate anything the actors have come up with during the rehearsal period, so I'm very inclusive as a writer.
-- John Cleese

#Writing #Giving #Actors

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

#Thinking #Force #Spoil

British press think entirely in clichés, and when they do come across creative work, they think that it must be based on something, because they don't realize that you can create things that aren't based on things.
-- John Cleese

#Thinking #Creative #Realizing

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

#Funny #Sarcastic #World

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

#Wanted

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

#Teamwork #Business #Fun

No hope for planet at all. But I will be gone before the planet is gone, so it's your problem.
-- John Cleese

#Gone #Problem #Planets

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

#Inspirational #Life #Justice

I think the hard thing for young comedians is that the majority of the young people in the audience out there don't have the wide range of references.
-- John Cleese

#Thinking #People #Comedian

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.
-- John Cleese

#Ideas #Long #Interesting

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

#Blue #Trying #Scratches

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

#Laughter #People #Kind

Everything in comedy's got to be exactly right, which is why making a comedic film is kind of a difficult process, because, for most of the two years of shooting it and editing it and reshooting and all of that, it's not quite right. And it's only when you just at the end, you put the final polish on it, it becomes really funny again.
-- John Cleese

#Editing #Years #Two

For me, the great problem growing up in England was that I had a very narrow concept of what God can be, and it was damn close to an old man with a beard.
-- John Cleese

#Growing Up #Men #Umpires

Sci-fi has never really been my bag. But I do believe in a lot of weird things these days, such as synchronicity. Quantum physics suggests it's possible, so why not?
-- John Cleese

#Believe #Bags #Why Not

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

#Ideas #Laptops

We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately spend most of their time in the closed mode.
-- John Cleese

#Humorous #Two #Tunnels

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

#Creativity #Thinking #Sense Of Humor

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

#Thinking #Long #People

We all die at the end, but does that nullify everything? Would most people rather say, "I wish I hadn't been born?" Once you're born you'll have to die, now is that funny or sad?
-- John Cleese

#People #Wish #Doe

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

#People #Evolve

I'm not sure what's going on in Britain. I don't know what's going on in London. Because London is no longer an English city, and that's how they got the Olympics. I mean, they said, "We're the most cosmopolitan city on Earth," but it doesn't feel English.
-- John Cleese

#Mean #Cities #Earth

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

#Funny #Sarcastic #Sports

Writing is the great skill, the creative skill. The acting is more an interpretative skill. And the thrill for me is the moment when I think of something. And then the challenge is how to get that funny idea to work in terms of the structure and that kind of thing, which is - and that's what I really love doing.
-- John Cleese

#Writing #Thinking #Skills

The one thing I remember about Christmas was that my father used to take me out in a boat about ten miles offshore on Christmas Day, and I used to have to swim back. Extraordinary. It was a ritual. Mind you, that wasn't the hard part. The difficult bit was getting out of the sack.
-- John Cleese

#Christmas #Father #Swim

I think humor is incredibly positive, I think it is life advancing. There's medical research to show that it improves your antibodies. It's all about sense and perspective.
-- John Cleese

#Thinking #Perspective #Research

I find the Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you.
-- John Cleese

#Teacher #Light #Trying

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

#Believe #Sense Of Humor

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

#Funny #Sarcastic #Trying

I learned a lot of things about literature talking to people at the publishing company. Did you know that about 90 percent of celebrity autobiographies are ghostwritten?
-- John Cleese

#Talking #People #Literature

Tension is wonderful for making people laugh.
-- John Cleese

#Writing #People #Laughing

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

#Being Alone #Space #Creative

He who laughs most, learns best.
-- John Cleese

#Inspirational #Teacher #Learning

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

#Funny #Life #Sarcastic

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

#Wine #Thinking #Experts

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

#Giving Up #Men #Giving

This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious.
-- John Cleese

#Creativity #Mind #Friendly

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

#Mean #Comedy #Mean Spirited

years ago we would have been burned for this. Now what I am suggesting is that we've advanced.
-- John Cleese

#Funny #Sarcastic #Years

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

#Mean #Character #Bully

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

#Journey #Air #Long

My hovercraft is full of eels.
-- John Cleese

#Eels

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

#Writing #Mind #Hats

If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you open to my ideas
-- John Cleese

#Ideas #Laughing #Humour

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

#Funny #Sarcastic #Lucky

What have the Romans ever done for us?
-- John Cleese

#Done

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

#Funny #Sarcastic #Should

If you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick,
-- John Cleese

#Thinking #Wish #Tricks

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

#Writing #Past #Wells

Laughter is the best creative medicine.
-- John Cleese

#Laughter #Creativity #Medicine

I can certainly see that you know your wine. Most of the guests who stay here wouldn't know the difference between Bordeaux and Claret.
-- John Cleese

#Wine #Differences #Guests

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

#Funny #Husband #Years

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

#Preparation #Alternatives #Moments

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

#Inspiring #Space #Boundaries

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

#Decision #Doubt #Efficiency

Don't let anyone tell you what you ought to like...
-- John Cleese

Creativity is not an ability that you either have or do not have. It is, for example, and this may surprise you, absolutely unrelated to IQ, provided you're intelligent above a certain minimal level.
-- John Cleese

#Creativity #Intelligent #Example

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

#Mistake #Creative #May

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

#Long #Giving #Mind

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

#Animal #Contact #Stills

We need to be in the open mode when we are pondering a problem, but, once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement it.
-- John Cleese

#Needs #Problem #Come Up

I think that the real religion is about the understanding that if we can only still our egos for a few seconds, we might have a chance of experiencing something that is divine in nature.
-- John Cleese

#Real #Thinking #Understanding

If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies... Do it in the 'closed' mode. But the moment the action is over, try to return to the 'open' mode... because in that mode we are the most aware, most receptive, most creative, and therefore at our most intelligent.
-- John Cleese

#Intelligent #Creative #Trying

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

#Loving You #Might #Impossible

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

#Stupidity

The open mode is a mood in which curiosity for its own sake can operate, because we're not under pressure to get a specific thing done properly. We can play.
-- John Cleese

#Play #Curiosity #Done

Ask yourself, "When does this decision have to be taken?" and having answered it, defer the decision until then, in order to give yourself maximum pondering time.
-- John Cleese

#Taken #Order #Giving

The most creative people have learned to tolerate the slight discomfort of indecision for much longer and so, just because they put in more pondering time, their solutions are more creative.
-- John Cleese

#People #Choices #Creative

The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.
-- John Cleese

#Significance

Would you take a billion dollars, if as part of the deal the Earth were made uninhabitable a year after your death? ... well, of course not; you care about your friends, above all your children, any grandchildren. But ... what if the deal calls for the planet to be poisoned a thousand years later? We feel strong obligations to generations in the near future - should we not feel the same way about our children's great-grandchildren and generations beyond them?
-- John Cleese

#Strong #Children #Years

When you get to my age, and I'm 66 now, you realize that the world is a madhouse and that most people are operating in fantasy anyway. So once you realise that, it doesn't bother you much.
-- John Cleese

#People #Age #World

Aping urbanity, Oozing with vanity, Plump as a manatee, Faking humanity, Intellectual inanity, Journalistic calamity, Fox Noise insanity, You're a profanity, Hannity
-- John Cleese

#Vanity #Insanity #Humanity

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

#People #Creative #Easy

High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought.
-- John Cleese

#Creativity #Situation #Responding

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

#Advice #Firsts #Raspberries

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

#People #Chickens #Walks

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

#Book #Writing #Want

If you really don't know where to start or if you're stuck, start generating random connections and allow your intuition to tell you if one might lead somewhere interesting.
-- John Cleese

#Interesting #Intuition #Connections

It's easier to be creative if you've got other people to play with.
-- John Cleese

#Play #People #Creative

The trouble with the British is that they are not interested in ideas. If Jesus came back today and offered to speak for an hour on British television, they would say, "What! Another talking head?
-- John Cleese

#Jesus #Talking #Ideas