Top 100 Gervais's Quotes
#1. I like characters like Ignatius Reilly in 'A Confederacy of Dunces' and Ricky Gervais's character in 'The Office.' They think one thing about themselves, but the truth is as far from that as it can be. So I began to think about how to put that kind of character in a book for kids.
Stephan Pastis
#2. I had great memories of growing up in a working class estate. I remember it being sunny all the time. So we're putting that on screen. It's not people wallowing in degradation.
Ricky Gervais
#3. My greatest hero is Nelson Mandela. What a man. Incarcerated for 25 years, he was released in 1990 and he hasn't reoffended. I think he's going straight, which shows you prison does work.
Ricky Gervais
#4. I know how much embarrassment hurts, and I love it as a theme because you can keep digging a hole. It's just an endless well, embarrassment.
Ricky Gervais
#5. That's why I'm very wise [in] the way I choose the remixes 'cuz I know that the song has to transcend well. You already have a base, instead of me just doing my own production and I don't have to start from scratch.
Cedric Gervais
#6. I always chose all my friends on whether they were funny. What's a better way to pass the time than laughing or smiling?
Ricky Gervais
#7. Even if it's such a lowly art as TV, you've got to get stuff off your chest, because that's what makes something different and original, your particular take on stuff.
Ricky Gervais
#8. Hotel bars are pretty good. No one bothers me there. Restaurants are safe. People are quite respectful when you're eating. But what I never do now is go to a busy bar on the weekend, or after 8 o'clock at night. That's the danger zone. Also being trapped. Never go on the Metro, or a bus.
Ricky Gervais
#9. Everything you do is autobiographical. Yeah, I grew up in a town called Redding and I had older brothers and sisters so it's all my memories of growing up.
Ricky Gervais
#10. I've got three friends that you'd call famous, but I'm sure after 20 years, most of my friends will be famous or work in television, because that's the nature of what your work is. When I was working in an office, most of my friends worked in offices.
Ricky Gervais
#11. I'm basically a 'do unto others' type person. I don't have any religious feelings because I'm an atheist, but I live my life like there's a God. And if there was he'd probably love me.
Ricky Gervais
#12. I think that's the fundamental thing - you can go anywhere you like as long as you're following a character that the audience likes and understands.
Ricky Gervais
#13. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn't. It's not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can't have your own facts.
Ricky Gervais
#14. I think doing something creative is the most important thing to me, and I think it's probably just good for the soul for anyone, whatever it is. You don't have to be a film director - you can do gardening or something - but I think everyone needs to create something.
Ricky Gervais
#15. I never understood redemption when I was young. Even before I was an atheist, I always thought with the prodigal son, "well, why's he getting the special treatment?".
Ricky Gervais
#16. Try something. And never be afraid to fail. That failure is useful too. It's just another building block.
Ricky Gervais
#17. If you can't joke about the most horrendous things in the world, what's the point of jokes? What's the point in having humor? Humor is to get us over terrible things.
Ricky Gervais
#18. I'm not a film snob at all. I much prefer a really good Hollywood blockbuster than a thought-provoking art house movie because entertainment is sort of where it's at.
Ricky Gervais
#19. There's a difference between a job and a career - if you're the boss you don't stop at six o'clock, you have to worry about everything all the time.
Ricky Gervais
#22. The world is not entirely comic and it's not entirely dramatic. You have a laugh and then someone finds a lump and you deal with that. Because that is what life is like.
Ricky Gervais
#23. Real racist jokes or sexist jokes aren't funny - not because they're offensive, but because they're not true. As soon as a joke is based on an untruth, it's not funny.
Ricky Gervais
#24. A world without any lies at all is not a good world, because it's artless and because there are no white lies, no flattery.
Ricky Gervais
#25. I use people's real voices because I want realism. So often I mention the actors' physicality because I want it to be like a real documentary.
Ricky Gervais
#26. There's nothing as perfect as the initial idea. And the only reason I write and direct is to protect the writing, because that's what's most precious.
Ricky Gervais
#27. I downloaded a Ricky Gervais podcast once at the persistent urging of a friend and found it funny but distracting - if I'm online, I'm surfing, which means I'm distracted from the podcast. So it's a form that doesn't really work for me.
Rachel Sklar
#28. If you walked around like David Bowie in 1973 in Reading, you'd get beaten up. The 1970s in a small town was more like the 1950s.. and that's the truth. The backdrop was probably Victorian.
Ricky Gervais
#29. It's not terrible, I guess, but if Ricky Gervais was half as talented as me, maybe the show would actually be funny once in a while.
Zach Braff
#30. I think sometimes you get given a good pile of goodwill, and it's whether you use it up in the first six months or spread it out over a career.
Ricky Gervais
#31. America champions the underdog. We champion the underdog until he's not the underdog anymore, and he annoys us.
Ricky Gervais
#32. My ultimate is Peter Sellers - his ability to go broad and somehow humanize that and be hilarious at the same time. He was just relatable, real at the same time as insane. I find Ricky Gervais absolutely hilarious. Steve Martin is another hero of mine - he's a genius.
Hank Azaria
#33. It's a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It's the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for.
Ricky Gervais
#34. I think comedy has to be an intellectual pursuit. It comes down to logic and analysis. As soon as it becomes emotional, it's not comedy anymore.
Ricky Gervais
#35. It's interesting that music in this country ... we sort of sold something to America with The Beatles and they sold something back. And we've never been afraid to embrace American style rock 'n' roll and make it our own over here.
Ricky Gervais
#36. It breaks your heart when you throw something away, but it's what left that counts. It's like worrying about the bits of rock you have knocked off in order to make a beautiful statue. You've wasted half the rock, yeah, but it's the Venus di Milo!
Ricky Gervais
#37. I think Hollywood's gotten more reactionary and conservative over the years, because there's no longer art in Hollywood. Art suffers in Hollywood.
Ricky Gervais
#38. I'll watch Ricky Gervais in anything he does. The guy's hilarious.
Danny DeVito
#39. When you do a remix, obviously you get a beautiful melody, you get the beautiful vocals - everything is already set up. You already have a base, which means all I gotta to do is create the music behind, 'cuz it's already beautiful.
Cedric Gervais
#40. With Ricky Gervais, it's all shades of wrong, it's my kind of humor.
Emily Blunt
#41. People have let me down in the past. I've loved something, and it's become a disgrace. I'd rather start again.
Ricky Gervais
#42. Same sex marriage isn't gay privilege, it's equal rights. Privilege would be something like gay people not paying taxes. Like churches don't.
Ricky Gervais
#43. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ... Then he said, "Let there be light." Which means he made the entire universe in the dark! How fucking good is that? He's brilliant.
Ricky Gervais
#44. Same-sex marriage is not a gay privilege, it's equal rights ...
Ricky Gervais
#45. I'm not a person that's easily embarrassed, but I'm embarrassed for other people.
Ricky Gervais
#46. I think the social faux par is probably what most people fear ... more people fear public speaking than death and that's because we don't want to make a fool of ourselves. It's fundamental.
Ricky Gervais
#47. I'm not a big comedy show-watcher, but I love Ricky Gervais' stuff and Sacha Baron Cohen's things. But I'm not an expert on them. I've seen them once.
Chris Lilley
#48. Comedy and drama are different sides of the same coin. And the thing about comedy and drama is about likability. It's about character first. It's about story. And for me, it's about empathy, and I think the realer someone is, the further you can go either way with them.
Ricky Gervais
#49. Well, on a personal level, I would never want to take on a character who didn't have some redeemable qualities. Even the worst of people, such as Michael Scott in The Office [Carell's character in the US version of the Ricky Gervais sitcom], have some decent human qualities that you can latch onto.
Steve Carell
#50. Your God is the best God. In fact, he's the only God. All other Gods are ridiculous, made up rubbish. Not yours though. Yours is real.
Ricky Gervais
#51. The most important thing in comedy - apart from empathy, which I think is important even if disguised - is surprise. I like surprising people with the fact that something's even a joke at all.
Ricky Gervais
#52. Spirituality really lost its way when it became a stick to beat people with: 'Do this or you'll burn in hell.
Ricky Gervais
#53. Telling someone with depression to pull themselves together is about as useful as telling someone with cancer to just stop having cancer
Ricky Gervais
#54. What will it feel like after you die? Exactly the same as it felt for those billions of years before you were born.
Ricky Gervais
#55. A joke isn't yours. It's used and you don't know where it's been.
Ricky Gervais
#56. Being on the edge isn't as safe, but the view is better
Ricky Gervais
#59. There are good and bad critics like good or bad artists. A good critic says why they didn't like it. A bad critic gives it away that they don't like you as a person. I quite like that as well, because it means that I've won.
Ricky Gervais
#60. You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. It doesn't matter what that 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.
Ricky Gervais
#61. Americans are brought up to believe they can grow up to be the president of the United States. Brits are told, It won't happen to you.
Ricky Gervais
#62. Ignorance might be bliss for the ignorant, but for the rest of us it's a right fucking pain in the arse
Ricky Gervais
#63. A Christian telling an atheist they're going to hell is as scary as a child telling an adult they're not getting any presents from Santa.
Ricky Gervais
#64. Got a proper job at 28. Gave it up to try comedy at 38. Decided to get fit and healthy at 48. It's never too late. But do it now
Ricky Gervais
#65. Suggesting I hate people with religion because I hate religion is like suggesting I hate people with cancer because I hate cancer.
Ricky Gervais
#66. The simple fact is, offense is taken, not given,
Ricky Gervais
#67. It's a privilege to be in such a great category of people and ... I don't believe in God, so I'd like to thank dogs. Dogs have given me everything.
Ricky Gervais
#68. Atheism is a belief system",
is like saying "not going skiing, is a hobby.
Ricky Gervais
#69. That's what life is, it's the small struggles. You walk down the street for half an hour, you see half an hour of drama. You don't need convoluted plot lines. You don't need long-lost brothers. You don't need it's set on the future; it's set on the moon.
Ricky Gervais
#70. It's better to create something that others criticise than to create nothing and criticise others. Go create, have fun!!
Ricky Gervais
#71. No one wants to see cool people doing brilliantly. I want to see the struggle. That's the fun bit.
Ricky Gervais
#72. I never think of myself as a celebrity - or even an actor, actually. I think of myself as a writer-director.
Ricky Gervais
#73. Unlike religious people, I look at all religions equally.
Ricky Gervais
#74. The truth doesn't hurt. Whatever it is, it doesn't hurt. It's better to know the truth.
Ricky Gervais
#75. The service in L.A. is the best. You don't get sarcastic, surly, fed-up waiters and waitresses like you do in England. They're good at their job and they're there for the customer. The only depressing thing is a lot of them have written more screenplays than me.
Ricky Gervais
#76. Most people sitting at home aren't cool, successful, witty Hollywood stars, but they all worry about what people think of them when they faux pas.
Ricky Gervais
#77. You want to see the people you've sort of come to know and love, or love to hate, you want to see them develop in some way. And I hope people get sort of caught up in that arc.
Ricky Gervais
#78. It's going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking. Or as Charlie Sheen calls it: Breakfast.
Ricky Gervais
#79. People think that it's fun to meet celebrities - but what do you mean by "celebrity"? Someone you recognise? What are they famous for? It's people who've done something that are exciting.
Ricky Gervais
#80. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity.
Ricky Gervais
#81. That's the amazing thing about life. You can just rub it out, like a blackboard, and start again.
Ricky Gervais
#82. You see reality TV and it's not reality TV. It's contrived and everything is plotted and scripted nearly. Documentaries are the same and just as bad.
Ricky Gervais
#83. Enjoy life. Have fun. Be kind. Have worth. Have friends. Be honest. Laugh. Die with dignity. Make the most of it. It's all we've got.
Ricky Gervais
#84. There's no difference between fame and infamy now. There's a new school of professional famous people that don't do anything. They don't create anything.
Ricky Gervais
#85. If you pay attention to good critics, you have to listen to the bad. So you have to ignore them all really. You can't just cherry pick the glowing ones.
Ricky Gervais
#86. You can drive 1,000 miles across America and find yourself, whereas if you drive a few miles from Slough you're in London anyway, or you hit Wales and you're in another country! Also, wherever you are in England it's still raining.
Ricky Gervais
#87. I feel sorry for people in power. I feel sorry for the Queen, in a way, that she hasn't had a normal life. It'd difficult for me to hate anyone. Immediately someone's unpopular, I feel sorry for them.
Ricky Gervais
#88. I've never worked out what the moral of Humpty Dumpty is. I can only think of: Don't sit on a wall, if you're an egg.
Ricky Gervais
#89. If I do eat meat, it's got to be ethical. I want to know that it lived a great life before it was killed humanely.
Ricky Gervais
#90. Your critics want you to be as unhappy, unfulfilled and unimportant as they are. Let your happiness eat them up from inside
Ricky Gervais
#91. I remember one review of The Office Christmas Special that compared it unfavourably to Dickens. What? You're saying I'm not as good as the greatest storyteller ever. Boo! Boo! I think I can live with that.
Ricky Gervais
#92. I am not a wolf in sheep's clothing, I'm a wolf in wolf's clothing.
Ricky Gervais
#93. I have to be excited, I have to have an adrenaline rush about doing something, or it bores me, I feel trapped.
Ricky Gervais
#94. Blasphemy: a law to protect an all-powerful, supernatural deity from getting its feelings hurt.
Ricky Gervais
#95. With 'The Office' and 'Extras' I've always snuck in a little bit of heart and pathos - and drama, which is fun.
Ricky Gervais
#96. Remember, no one can hurt your feelings without your permission
Ricky Gervais
#97. The best way to avoid criticism is never do anything ever. Or, do what you love, have a great life & let others spend their time criticising.
Ricky Gervais
#98. I like my baths really deep and hot. But washing everything only takes a few minutes. So I thought it would be a waste to just flush all that water away. So there was nothing else to do but take pictures of myself trying to look as horrendous as possible. Oh my, what have I started?
Ricky Gervais
#99. I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer, and pizza are all good enough reasons for living. But living an honest life - for that you need the truth.
Ricky Gervais
#100. Since there is absolutely no logical reason to assume there is an afterlife, I decided to make the life I have now as much fun as possible.
Ricky Gervais
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