Quotes from John Cleese

So "borrow" an idea from someone you admire—an idea that really appeals to you personally.

learning from something or someone you admire is not stealing. It's called "being influenced by.

The Buddhists have a phrase for this—"Beginner's Mind"—expressing how experience can be more vivid when it's not dulled by familiarity.

Getting discouraged is a total waste of your time.

here's my advice: get your panic in early! The good thing about panic is that it gives you energy.

Because, as we all know, it's easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it's also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we're not so sure about." ? John Cleese

The anthropologist Gregory Bateson once said, "You can't have a new idea 'til you've got rid of an old one.

We moved back to the Raffles', then back to Devon (to Horrabridge, where I saw a spider so big I could hear its footsteps).

I guess we're all thinking how sad it is that a man of such talent, of such capability for kindness, of such unusual intelligence, should now so suddenly be spirited away ... Well, I feel that I should say, Nonsense. Good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard, I hope he fries! And the reason I feel I should say this is he would never forgive me if I didn't, if I threw away this glorious opportunity to shock you all on his behalf. Anything for him, but mindless good taste.

Terry Gilliam has spoken scathingly about my preference for physical comfort. I have come to the conclusion that this is very much his problem.

People are changed not by exhortations to do things but by experiences... they may be changed by experience, in a way that could never be achieved with mere good advice.

It seemed as though he had a fundamental belief that the merit of his argument depended on the strength of his feelings about the matter, and since he always felt uncontrollably passionate about everything, then clearly he was always right. This irrational claptrap, coming as it did from a swarthy, excitable, plump Celtic demi-dwarf, struck me not just as thoroughly impertinent but also as a noisy and ignorant attempt to undermine the most basic principles of the Enlightenment.

It is easier to do trivial things that are urgent, than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking.

Once you've got -- actually got -- an idea that is whirring around so fast that no other light or contrary evidence can come in, I think it's very dangerous.

Young children have so little life experience that they inevitably assume that what happens around and to them is the norm.

Laughter connects you with people. It's almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter.

The general principle is this: the bigger the leap, the longer the creative period is likely to be.

The problem with political correctness is that comedians have to set the bar according to what we are told by the most touchy, most emotionally unstable and fragile and least stoic people in the country.

Frames of Mind

You can't have a new idea 'til you've got rid of an old one.

The key thing is to start, even if it feels as though you're forcing yourself through an emotional roadblock.

Sorry this is such a long letter, but I didn't have time to write a shorter one.

It was an astonishing fantasy but it showed me what even apparently sensible people can believe if they really want to. I

creativity plummets. This is because they think they have nothing more to learn.