Top 80 Ricky Gervais Quotes

Humor is to get us over terrible things.

You can be watching the greatest film in the world, and if you hear your neighbor getting into a fight, you’re at the window.

I could always take a joke. I could always be the butt of the joke. I could always hand it out. That was just who I was.

There are no Hollywood stars speaking out for the elderly. They’re forgotten, bewildered, and I don’t think it’s because people are cruel or don’t care. It’s because you don’t want to think about your own mortality. I think people don’t talk about it enough.

Even I can’t talk about myself for an hour.

I’ve avoided doing a network comedy, because I wouldn’t get my own way. Even though it would get more viewers, it wouldn’t be mine.

Ego is hilarious – especially the vanity of a comedian. As soon as you see one start worrying about how cool he is or about how many stadiums he can fill, he stops being funny.

A couple of people I knew went to university apart from me, but all the way through I was the smartest kid in the school. That’s luck, but I was proud of it. And I was also proud of doing well without trying. As you get older, and it took me a long time to realise it, that’s a disgusting attitude, revolting.

I was never ambitious. I was never ambitious at school.

I find comedy easy, and I find drama exciting and tantalising.

I see my real job now as – never mind ‘The Office,’ ‘Extras,’ film career, Emmys – I want everyone in the world to know who Karl Pilkington is.

I really just want to make Karl Pilkington the new messiah.

There are no Hollywood stars speaking out for the elderly. They’re forgotten, bewildered, and I don’t think it’s because people are cruel or don’t care. It’s because you don’t want to think about your own mortality. I think people don’t talk about it enough.

My dad was a laborer. And he used to get up at 5:30 every morning. He worked for 50 years of his life, in all weathers for, by showbiz standards, petty cash. I remind myself of that when I feel a little bit spoiled or hard done by.

Let’s be honest here: Twitter, for me, is 90 per cent a marketing tool.

If I was a research scientist, I’d want people to say, ‘You know what, he’s a great research scientist, that Ricky Gervais. He’s really good, really good.’ You know, I’d go to award ceremonies for research scientists and go, ‘Yeah, I really worked hard, yeah.’ It’s brilliant.

My career, I look at it in a Darwinian framework. I’m going to do exactly what I want, and I’m going to survive, or I’m not. I’m not going to pander. I’m not going to change things. I’m not going to do focus groups. I’ll live and die by the sword. I don’t care. Because I couldn’t live with myself.

I think it’s important to hold a mirror up to society and yourself.

You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. It doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a table or a film or gardening-everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, ‘I did that.’

The best script in the world doesn’t work perfectly when you actually act it out. That’s a law. That’s a given. So you have to play with everything. And the more fun you have with it, the better the finished product.

I think being nice is more important than being clever.

People confuse the subject of the joke with the target of the joke, and they’re very rarely the same.

I was very protective of my privacy. I didn’t want people to write bad things about me that weren’t true, because that’s just not fair. Fifty percent of everything written about me is wrong.

Oh, let’s face it: I hate everything in others.

I wanted to be clever, but being funny came first. That’s how you know someone is clever. They don’t come out and tell you pi to 13 places – they tell you a joke.

What makes ‘Derek’ a different kind of sitcom – if it is even a sitcom – is its sincerity.

Look, just tell me where that lemon came from and I’ll shut up and go away.

I lift weights. Then I put them down again.

When I see a headline ‘Guess who’s going out with who?’ I don’t guess, and I don’t click.

I think Spielberg is a master. I think ‘Jaws’ invented a genre.

When I was about to be famous, I feared it on a few levels. I feared it because I didn’t want people to lump me in with those people who’d do anything to be famous. I didn’t like the word ‘celebrity.’ I feared intrusion, you know? Make me famous, and suddenly you can go through my trash bins.

You can be watching the greatest film in the world, and if you hear your neighbor getting into a fight, you’re at the window.

I was very protective of my privacy. I didn’t want people to write bad things about me that weren’t true, because that’s just not fair. Fifty percent of everything written about me is wrong.

I like the ironic pomposity of a stand-up comedian. Like all those comedians thinking they can bring down Coca-Cola. They forget to be funny.

I am myself sometimes, and I do state my opinions, but not in a comedy routine and not in my character. There always has to be some sort of layer to it.

I think all art – even one as lowly as making jokes about celebrities – is there to make a connection.

Pol Pot – he rounded up anybody he thought was intellectual and had them executed. And how he told someone was intellectual or not was whether they wore glasses. If they’re that clever, take them off when they see him coming!

I’m a fan of the kind of political correctness that is about not promoting prejudice. But some people in America are offended by equality because when you’ve had privilege for so long, equality feels like oppression.

Even on the stage, I’ve played a bit of a persona, and the persona I played was a much brasher, more arrogant, less aware, less educated version of me.

I like the ironic pomposity of a stand-up comedian. Like all those comedians thinking they can bring down Coca-Cola. They forget to be funny.

Stupidity without malice isn’t horrible; some people can’t help it.

How many times have we seen reality celebrities fall from grace – often through no fault of their own – and then go on a show like ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ and say, ‘I want to show the public a different side of me.’ And I’m screaming at the telly going, ‘This is not therapy. This is voyeurism!’

I’ve got re-addicted to normal people, which is the loveliest thing to write about.

I don’t like it when I see a racist comedian go up and say, ‘What are we gonna do about all these immigrants?’ and they get a round the applause. I think, ‘Well that’s not a joke. That’s just your biased opinion.’

I think our elderly are forgotten sometimes.

It’s funny because I was offered film parts the first week after ‘The Office’ went out. I was sent a script, and I said, ‘Who’s the lead?’ They said, ‘We want you to be.’ And I said: ‘Well, who’s going to go and see that? You want John Cusack.’

I think being nice is more important than being clever.

Your reputation is still the most important thing that you’ve got.

Why buy a book when you can join a library.

Everything I do is somehow rooted in humanity. It’s always about people; it’s always about ego. It’s always about desperation. It’s quite existential. You know, ‘Am I leading a good life?’ That might be because I’m an atheist, and I think this is all we’ve got, so you better be nice. And have fun.

Pol Pot – he rounded up anybody he thought was intellectual and had them executed. And how he told someone was intellectual or not was whether they wore glasses. If they’re that clever, take them off when they see him coming!

I like grown-up comedy, where it’s about character and attitude and life as opposed to obvious gross-out and jokes.

You can laugh at anything. It depends on the joke.

As an artist, you want as many people as possible to see your work with no interference. And usually, I’ve gone onto fringe channels: BBC Two, HBO, Channel 4.

Honor is a gift a man gives himself. You can be as good as anyone that ever lived. If you can read, you can learn everything that anyone ever learned. But you’ve got to want it.

Honor is a gift a man gives himself. You can be as good as anyone that ever lived. If you can read, you can learn everything that anyone ever learned. But you’ve got to want it.

That’s the buzz for me, the creative process. An idea is never as good as when it’s in your head. And then it’s just how little you ruin it.

All of my friends are oddities.

When I go to work, I don’t want to make depressing, gritty, urban stories that are depressing to watch. I want to give people something to enjoy. When people think I’m a control freak and an ogre – which I am – it’s only because I want my work to be accessible and Everyman, in a way.

Luckily, even when people are shouting lies, the truth is undamaged. Science doesn’t matter what you believe.

If I was a research scientist, I’d want people to say, ‘You know what, he’s a great research scientist, that Ricky Gervais. He’s really good, really good.’ You know, I’d go to award ceremonies for research scientists and go, ‘Yeah, I really worked hard, yeah.’ It’s brilliant.

I love ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Casablanca’ – great stories, acted well, made well.