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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

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John Cleese
Age: 85
Born: 1939
Born: October 27
Actor
Autobiographer
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Voice Actor
Writer
Weston-super-Mare
Somerset
John Marwood Cleese
American
Generation
Kids
Generations
Underpin
Problem
Problems
Prized
Back
Fine
Teenage
Sometimes
Principles
Visuals
Great
Comedy
Visual
Writing
Audience
Target
Really
Acting
Basic

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Oh, I could spend my life having this conversation - look - please try to understand before one of us dies
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I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
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Muslims, who have a completely different value system, come to the West, then they should accept that there are certain basic values in the West intrinsic to our culture. Just as I wouldn't suggest that any Westerner walk down the streets of Saudi Arabia in a bikini.
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If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
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The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.
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My mum died about three years ago at the age of 101, and just towards the end, as she began to run out of energy, she did actually stop trying to tell me what to do most of the time.
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My hovercraft is full of eels.
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The Americans all love 'The Holy Grail', and the English all love 'Life Of Brian', and I'm afraid on this one, I side with the English.
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Telling people how to be creative is easy - being creative is difficult.
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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.
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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.
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Loving your neighbour as much as yourself is practically bloody impossible? You might as well have a commandment that states,'Thou shalt fly'.
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It’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve.
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Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.
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I would like to do my own eulogy, and then shoot myself and then get in the coffin.
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The British fans are liable to suddenly be talking to you about something that you don't know how you got into the conversation. I think it's something to do with the fact that they've been watching you for so many years sort of you telling your story.
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There are 3 basic differences between we British and you Americans. One, we speak English, and you don't. Two, when we have a World Championship, we invite teams from other nations. Three, when you meet the British head of State, you only have to get down on one knee.
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No hope for planet at all. But I will be gone before the planet is gone, so it's your problem.
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Basil Fawlty was an easy character for me. For some reason, portraying a mean, uptight, incompetent bully comes naturally to me.
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