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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
Problem
Problems
Prized
Back
Fine
Teenage
Sometimes
Principles
Visuals
Great
Comedy
Visual
Writing
Audience
Target
Really
Acting
Basic
American
Generation
Kids
Generations
Underpin

More quotes by John Cleese

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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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There's nothing good on the television let's burn a witch. It must have been terribly exciting to live in those times.
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I'm not sure what's going on in Britain. I don't know what's going on in London. Because London is no longer an English city, and that's how they got the Olympics. I mean, they said, We're the most cosmopolitan city on Earth, but it doesn't feel English.
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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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We need to be in the open mode when we are pondering a problem, but, once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement it.
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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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Filming is like a long air journey: there's so much hanging around and boredom that they keep giving you food.
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I think the problem with people like this is that they are so stupid that they have no idea how stupid they are.
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The sad thing about true stupidity is that you can do absolutely nothing about it.
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Because, as we all know, it’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about.
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Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.
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When we hold a World Championship for a particular sport, we invite teams from other countries to play as well.
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You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him enter regional distribution codes in data field 97 to facilitate regression analysis on the back end.
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The most creative people have this childlike facility to play.
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The Americans are so much more positive. They are much more in love with success. In Britain, they're a fairly envious bunch, and they love it if you fail.
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If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you open to my ideas
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I can never do better than 'Fawlty Towers,' whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.
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Creativity is not an ability that you either have or do not have. It is, for example, and this may surprise you, absolutely unrelated to IQ, provided you're intelligent above a certain minimal level.
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My views are heretical to people who believe in political correctness.
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It's a plastic surgeon you need, not a doctor
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