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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.

John Cleese

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John Cleese
Age: 84
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
Fail
Americans
Failing
Positive
Success
Envious
Much
Fairly
Love
Britain
Bunch

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Most of the bad taste I've been accused of has been generic bad taste it's been making fun of an idea as opposed to a person.
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If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies... Do it in the 'closed' mode. But the moment the action is over, try to return to the 'open' mode... because in that mode we are the most aware, most receptive, most creative, and therefore at our most intelligent.
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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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The thrill I got discovering Buster Keaton when I was growing up was so exciting. He was one of the greats.
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As Daniel Levitin writes, our brain is a giant pattern detector. If we read something that coincides with what we already believe we're more likely to give it credence, while the opposite is not true.
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When you're being stalked by an angry mob with raspberries, the first thing to do is to release a tiger.
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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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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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Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.
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I have several times made a poor choice by avoiding a necessary confrontation.
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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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This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious.
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Laughter destroys any divisions between people.
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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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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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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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I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
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I'm very odd 'cause I think there's more than just a materialist planet, a materialist, reductionist planet.
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England is a fairly envious little country and it's embodied in the press. They don't like anyone being more distinguished than they are.
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My views are heretical to people who believe in political correctness.
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