If you chase something too desperately, it eludes you.
Steve Coogan
I'm a huge fan of Jack Lemmon, he was someone who managed to tread that line between comedy and tragedy and sometimes give very big performances, but they were never over-demonstrative and they were never not based on a kind of real truthful human being.
Comedy is unique in the sense that laughter is a palpable noise that everyone makes.
If you do something very successful, you will then be defined by it.
I used to do stuff at college. I could do voices. I could make some people laugh. I wasn't the class clown, but I knew I had this skill.
When you see a crowd of people jumping up and down at a pop concert, all gloriously in the moment, I don't think you'll ever see a comedian there. They'll all be standing at the sides, looking at how it all fits together.
Me, myself, personally, I like to keep myself private. I have never said I am a paragon of virtue, a model of morality. I simply do what I do.
I've always been drawn to discomfort and that limbo of unease you get between comedy and tragedy. Making people laugh one moment and the next making them feel really uncomfortable.
People regurgitate the same old cliches and it becomes like a photocopy of a photocopy of something that's vaguely interesting.
The best feeling in the world is performing in front of a live audience who like what you're doing. I can understand why people become dictators just because of the thrill they get making the speeches.
The trick is always to write in pairs because if at least two people find it funny, you've immediately halved the odds of it not being funny.
As soon as I see period costume, I turn off. It's like hearing drama on Radio 4.
I don't go to premieres, unless I'm contractually bound to.
I have never wanted to be famous, as such - fame is a by-product.
Actors say they do their own stunts for the integrity of the film but I did them because they looked like a lot of fun.
There's something quite joyful about doing comedy which doesn't really need much analysis. I'm not elitist. I like to do crowd-pleasing stuff which is a bit smart, but is just about belly laughs.
If you are a great dramatic actor then you often don't know if people are enjoying your stuff at all because they are sitting there in silence. But with comedy it's a simple premise. If it's funny, people laugh. If it's not, they don't.
I did not become successful in my work through embracing or engaging in celebrity culture. I never signed away my privacy in exchange for success.
But with comedy it's a simple premise. If it's funny, people laugh. If it's not, they don't.
If the person who can effectively sanction ill-conceived wars can play the electric guitar, which is a symbol of rebellion, then that whole worldview becomes confused.
Actually, bizarrely, in America, I get more appreciation from the odd, unusual stuff I've done, almost because I'm not, if you like, famous in America as I am in England.
When I see friends from school I think they've all grown old and I've stayed the same.
I don't think I'm kind of universally known. I think in the indie world I'm probably better known than in some mainstream Hollywood terms.
I always find it easier to portray myself as being unlikeable and idiotic; to actually play a character that is likeable and engages the audience is far more difficult. It's a more subtle kind of challenge.
There is a strong ethical dimension to the best comedy. Not only does it avoid reinforcing prejudices, it actively challenges them.
When I was a student I was very, very ambitious, completely immersed in my comedy career. I never had that period of reckless hedonism that you should get out of your system in your youth.
If you start to disrespect the character you're playing, or play it too much for laughs, that can work for a sketch, it will sell some gags, but it's all technique. It's like watching a juggler - you can be impressed by it, but it's not going to touch you in any way.
I've always been drawn to discomfort and that limbo of unease you get between comedy and tragedy.
Most of all I don't want to be bored. That's why I'd rather do something that has some sort of ambition, that risks failing, rather than make safer, more comfortable choices.
Going to a grammar school, you mixed with all sorts of different types and I used to listen to how they talked. When I did my imitations, I could sound like someone really rough, or I could sound like a cabinet minister.
I find impressionists slightly annoying, really.
What I don't like is dance music or hip hop or any of that sort of thing.
If you are a great dramatic actor then you often don't know if people are enjoying your stuff at all because they are sitting there in silence.
London audiences are tricky, too. They don't laugh as much as the Northern audiences because, and I hate to say this, they are a bit cleverer normally, and they are picking up on all the little details and listening more carefully.
Even great people are always slightly disappointing, which is generally what makes them interesting.
When you tour you become more intimate with your audience. It's like I need reassurance that they like me or at least find me relevant. And that I can still do it.
The great thing is that the funny side of getting old is fuel for my comedy.
I happen to have a public profile. Ditto newspaper editors. It's a result of what I do, not an end.
I want my work to be judged, not me.
The tabloids operate in an amoral parallel universe where the bottom line is selling newspapers.
Hacking into a victim of crime's phone is a sort of poetically elegant manifestation of a modus operandi the tabloids have.
I'm an entertainer. I don't go round saying I'm a paragon of virtue, so that is clearly not in the public interest.
I try to not make safe choices, but I also like to do stuff which is interesting and is sort of exciting in some way and accessible.
Big comedy is good, I like things that are big, but good comedy has to be truthful I think and has to reflect some sort of reality.
I don't like comedy that I think is bad comedy, where people are trying to be sick for the sake of it, where there's no intellectual point behind it. I like stuff that's got an underlying point of view.
I don't think there's anything outside what comedy can address.
Yeah, all drama teachers are very effusive, very demonstrative, very emotionally open, very big, and gesticulate a lot, and are very physical.
I think it's always funny when you see kids do Shakespeare.
My father worked for IBM. My mother raised us kids. There were six of us, and a couple of extra foster kids at any given time.
I am of the very last generation who didn't have computers at school. As we grow old we'll become something of an aberration.
