Quotes from Steve Coogan

I like the transience of Klimt paintings.

I used to do stuff at college. I could do voices. I could make some people laugh. I wasn't the class clown, but I knew I had this skill.

I don't like new bands. I don't want to be one of those pathetic old men in their forties who knows exactly what 18-year-olds are into.

I don't go to premieres, unless I'm contractually bound to.

I try to not make safe choices, but I also like to do stuff which is interesting and is sort of exciting in some way and accessible.

Guide dogs for the blind. It's cruel really, isn't it? Getting a dog to lead a man round all day. Not fair on either of them.

In my mind God made Adam and Eve, he didn't make Adam and Steve.

I always think that, even when people behave badly, if you like something deep inside them, then there is a tiny bit of nobility - they wish they could be good.

Even great people are always slightly disappointing, which is generally what makes them interesting.

People regurgitate the same old cliches and it becomes like a photocopy of a photocopy of something that's vaguely interesting.

I am of the very last generation who didn't have computers at school. As we grow old we'll become something of an aberration.

I'm just attracted to playing people who are ostensible unlikable. That's not to say that there's something in there that makes you care. It might be that you just find them so awful that you just can't stop watching, like a car crash.

The tabloids operate in an amoral parallel universe where the bottom line is selling newspapers.

There is a strong ethical dimension to the best comedy. Not only does it avoid reinforcing prejudices, it actively challenges them.

If you do something very successful, you will then be defined by it.

If you chase something too desperately, it eludes you.

Most of all I don't want to be bored. That's why I'd rather do something that has some sort of ambition, that risks failing, rather than make safer, more comfortable choices.

I happen to have a public profile. Ditto newspaper editors. It's a result of what I do, not an end.

I have never wanted to be famous, as such - fame is a by-product.

Yeah, all drama teachers are very effusive, very demonstrative, very emotionally open, very big, and gesticulate a lot, and are very physical.

All those people who go around saying Life begins at forty, they're notable by their absence. The nerve.

Even if I screw up in my personal life, as long as I'm not destroying myself, I just think, "Okay, I screwed up." I'm not Mother Theresa.

I'm not turned away from the church through anger, although I have criticisms of it. It's through finding affirmation of life and illumination of life through creativity and art.

The best feeling in the world is performing in front of a live audience who like what you're doing. I can understand why people become dictators just because of the thrill they get making the speeches.