Top 45 Rowan Atkinson Quotes

I want to express myself in a different way. I have a performing inclination.

To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom.

Confronting a stadium audience, you can’t see the whites of their eyes. It’s just an amorphous mass of noise and, of course, you can’t see the alleged billions watching at home either, so the degree to which you are intimidated is quite low.

Nope, I don’t enjoy work generally. Not because I’m lazy; it’s just all so stressful and worrying.

It’s not easy to take a sit-com and turn it into a feature.

In the modern media age we are rarely surprised by what we see. Whether it’s on television or film or in the theatre, everything is so advertised, so trailed, that most entertainment is merely what you thought it was going to be like.

Monty Python crowd; half of them came from Cambridge, and half of them came from Oxford. But, there seems to be this jewel, this sort of two headed tradition of doing comedy, of doing sketches, and that kind of thing.

It’s the difficulty we had with Mr. Bean, actually, when it went from TV to film. You certainly discover that you need to explain more about a character.

I’m not a collector. I don’t like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate.

The older you get, the more you realise how happenstance… has helped to determine your path through life.

I have always regarded Mr. Bean as a timeless, ageless character, and I would rather he be remembered as a character mostly in his 30s and 40s.

I want to express myself in a different way. I have a performing inclination.

Nope, I don’t enjoy work generally. Not because I’m lazy; it’s just all so stressful and worrying.

People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I’ll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn’t the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer.

I feel as though the camera is almost a kind of voyeur in Mr. Bean’s life, and you just watch this bizarre man going about his life in the way that he wants to.

I consider myself more of a visual comedian than a physical one.

In the modern media age we are rarely surprised by what we see. Whether it’s on television or film or in the theatre, everything is so advertised, so trailed, that most entertainment is merely what you thought it was going to be like.

And, we put a lot more value, or at least I personally put a lot more value, on the creative values and creative challenges of something than the commercial necessities.

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 like to juggle with one ball at a time. Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time.

It’s the difficulty we had with Mr. Bean, actually, when it went from TV to film. You certainly discover that you need to explain more about a character.

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.

And what’s interesting about him as a comic character is that the custard pie hardly ever ends up on his face.

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.

There is always that age-old thing about England and America being divided by a common language. You think that because we speak English and you speak English that you’re bound to understand and like everything that we do. And of course you don’t.

In TV, and in particular in commercials, you don’t really need to explain very much at all – you just say he’s a spy and he’s a little bit theatrical and overblown and smug and he’s not very good at his job.

But, actually, so many of the clerics that I’ve met, particularly the Church of England clerics, are people of such extraordinary smugness and arrogance and conceitedness who are extraordinarily presumptuous about the significance of their position in society.

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.

It’s a bit disconcerting being treated like Madonna.

I don’t much enjoy Back and Forth. I mean, I think it has its own particular qualities, but I think it’s inferior to any of the half-hour ones we did.

The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult.

Not so much in Canada, but certainly in the US, as I’m sure you know, money is all, and if they can get another 26 programs of the same thing even though it advances the culture or those actor’s careers not at all it doesn’t matter.

I’m not a collector. I don’t like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate.

No, no, I was only funny on stage, really. I, I, think I was funny as a person toward my classmates when I was very young. You know, when I was a child, up to about the age of 12.

I have always regarded Mr. Bean as a timeless, ageless character, and I would rather he be remembered as a character mostly in his 30s and 40s.

Apart from the fact that your physical ability starts to decline, I also think someone in their fifties being childlike becomes a little sad. You’ve got to be careful.

Marketing is what gets you noticed, and that side of it something – this side of it, if you like, doing interviews – is the side of it that I least enjoy, and yet is 50% of the project.

To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom.

I like to juggle with one ball at a time. Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time.

I think the character does tend to suit an episodic thing, because what’s fun about him is that he doesn’t care about anyone else, and it’s very difficult for a main character – a lead character – in a movie to not care about anybody else.

I don’t much enjoy Back and Forth. I mean, I think it has its own particular qualities, but I think it’s inferior to any of the half-hour ones we did.

And what’s interesting about him as a comic character is that the custard pie hardly ever ends up on his face.

I’m very good at having time off. I tend to take whole years off – I had 1994 and 1997 off. I find it very easy; I just love pottering around doing normal things.

No, no, I was only funny on stage, really. I, I, think I was funny as a person toward my classmates when I was very young. You know, when I was a child, up to about the age of 12.

People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I’ll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn’t the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer.