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I didn't go to film school. I had been an actor in movies, I had been in plays, and then I just sort of jumped into it.
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I love being with my family and just being a regular person.
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The movies have a way of seeping out there over time. We don't put them in 2,000 theaters. It wouldn't work that way.
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I don't read about myself, and I don't read any magazine that has anything to do with movies or show business.
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People who take themselves too seriously, who can't see anything else, are usually funny.
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'The Office' is an amazing show. So is 'Extras.'
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I don't know anyone who's ever taken a bus. It's a mysterious form of transportation.
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The minute the money is more, you lose your control, so then there's no point.
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I've been buying guitars since 1964, and you fool yourself into thinking it's the last one.
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I'm not really premeditative in any way at all. I come up with an idea, hopefully for a film, and then I'm lucky enough to do the film.
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I guess there's something that's appealing to me about people that are aspirational-slash-deluded.
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When I look back on what I've done, I think I'm drawn to obsession, perhaps.
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When my daughter played volleyball in school, they were the Wildcats. Well, there are about a million Wildcats. Why don't you come up with another name?
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It's dangerous talking about comedy; it gets to be very tedious and presumptuous.
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Many times I'll improvise it, which isn't done a lot in movies or commercials. But a lot of my commercials are improvised.
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In the kind of films that I do, there is an extremely limited number of people that can improvise. The reason the ensemble continues in the movies is because those are the people that can do that kind of work. It's not just an accident those people are in the film.
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Peter Sellers is my great comedy hero.
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I spent more time in America, but I developed a very English sense of humour. I clicked into it deeply with Peter Sellers, who is still probably my favourite comedian.
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Comedy is like music. You have to know the key and you have to find players with good chops.
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I'm drawn as well to the lower echelons of things because it struck me a long time ago that it didn't really matter on what level people were working on anything; it was just as important to them as the people working on what's perceived as a higher level.
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There isn't much improvisation in film - there's virtually none. The people that theoretically could be good at this in a theater situation don't necessarily do this in a film in a way that will work, because it's much broader on a stage.
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Some instinct has told me I need to live in a world that isn't consumed with reading about myself or anyone else or someone's opinion about something. I need to be clear of that. It's just healthier for me. I feel happier.
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Most films, when you finish as an actor, you just go home.
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I don't do any editing while we're making the movie. I sit down and watch it all with my editor, we make longhand notes on pads, and then we begin our work.