Quotes by John Cleese

About John Cleese:

John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It's rung down the...

John Cleese

He who laughs most, learns best.

John Cleese

Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.

John Cleese

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

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 exa...

John Cleese

I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.

John Cleese

My compulsion to always be working has become less strong and my current business is purely down to this enormous alimony. If I wasn't doing this I'd be making documentaries about wildlife and other subjects that interest me.

John Cleese

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

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

I'm always meeting new people, and my list of friends seems to change quite a bit.

John Cleese

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

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

When the target audience is American teenage kids, you can have problems. My generation prized really fine acting and writing. Sometimes you have to go back to the basic principles which underpin great visual comedy.

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

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...

John Cleese

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

God was treated like this powerful, erratic, rather punitive father who has to be pacified and praised. You know, flattered.

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 withou...

John Cleese

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

John Cleese

Author Bio

  • NameJohn Cleese
  • Descriptionactor from England
  • AliasesJohn Marwood Cleese
  • BornOctober 27, 1939
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionActor; Television Actor; Film Actor; Comedian; Voice Actor; Screenwriter; Writer; Film Producer; Autobiographer
  • AwardsPrimetime Emmy Award