Quotes from Christopher Guest

I'm fascinated by real-time behavior.

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.

I've been fortunate. I get to write films. I get to write music in films. I get to play arenas wearing a wig.

If you're showing people where it's smooth sailing, where is the joke? If you go back to any movie, even a conventional movie, with any comedians, they're either not terribly intelligent or they're not doing something well.

What interests me most are the emotional lives of the people. If I don't have that, it's not worth doing, frankly.

The most important thing about my life is this integrity, and you can't lie to yourself.

I started working in New York City as an actor and did many plays. I did regional theater, smaller theaters, children's theater.

Most films, when you finish as an actor, you just go home.

I knew Dave Raymond, who was the original Phillie Phanatic.

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.

I rarely joke unless I'm in front of a camera. It's not what I am in real life. It's what I do for a living.

Music means a great deal to me.

I've been buying guitars since 1964, and you fool yourself into thinking it's the last one.

The fun part about doing our movies is that you're creating something using the talents of people rather than finding these pathetic people who are thrust into these situations. That, to me, is completely artless.

I've never seen a reality show. I don't watch television.

I spent a lot of time in London when I was growing up and I've always picked up accents without even really meaning to. It used to get me into trouble as a child.

I love being with my family and just being a regular person.

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.

People want me to be funny all the time. They think I'm being funny no matter what I say or do and that's not the case.

I watch mostly documentaries and things that aren't remotely funny.

There are dozens and dozens of improv classes across the nation, but it really cannot be taught.

I would make a huge distinction between theater improvisation and film improvisation.

Many times I'll improvise it, which isn't done a lot in movies or commercials. But a lot of my commercials are improvised.

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.