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Do Unto Others…’ Is A Good Rule Of Thumb. I Live By That. Forgiveness Is Probably The Greatest Virtue There Is. But That’s Exactly What It Is - A Virtue. Not Just A Christian Virtue. No One Owns Being Good. I’m Good. I Just Don’t Believe I’ll Be Rewarded For It In Heaven. My Reward Is Here And Now. It’s Knowing That I Try To Do The Right Thing. That I Lived A Good Life. And That’s Where Spirituality Really Lost Its Way. When It Became A Stick To Beat People With. ‘do This Or You’ll Burn In Hell.’ You Won’t Burn In Hell. But Be Nice Anyway.

-Ricky Gervais

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Do Unto Others…’ Is

Ricky Gervais

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Do Unto Others…’ Is A Good Rule Of Thumb. I Live By That. Forgiveness Is Probably The Greatest Virtue There Is. But That’s Exactly What It Is - A Virtue. Not Just A Christian Virtue. No One Owns Being Good. I’m Good. I Just Don’t Believe I’ll Be Rewarded For It In Heaven. My Reward Is Here And Now. It’s Knowing That I Try To Do The Right Thing. That I Lived A Good Life. And That’s Where Spirituality Really Lost Its Way. When It Became A Stick To Beat People With. ‘do This Or You’ll Burn In Hell.’ You Won’t Burn In Hell. But Be Nice Anyway.

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Growing Up, The Most Important Thing, After Taking Care Of Your Family And Getting A Decent Job Of Work, Was Having A Laugh. That Was The Point To Life.

You Can Just Keep Getting It Worse Until You Have To Pull Back And Let The Audience Breathe. But Yeah, I Really Love Digging.

I Can't Stand It. I Can't Stand Someone Being Embarrassed. I Don't Know Why. If Someone Slips Over And The First Thing They Do Is Look Around, I Pretend I Haven't Seen It.

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.

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.

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.

I See Myself Much More As A Writer/director Or At Least An Aspiring Writer/director - Not Necessarily In Film.

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Funny Bones, To Me, Are More Important Than Funny Lines. If A Comedian Is Just Not Likable And Doing The Lines, You Could Read Them Yourself. Whereas If Someone [you Like] Shambles Out, And They Tell You What A Bad Day They've Had, They Don't Have To Say Anything. I Love Them. I Want To Hug Them Because They've Been Through Something. And It Comes Back To Empathy, Always Empathy.

What Will It Feel Like After You Die? Exactly The Same As It Felt For Those Billions Of Years Before You Were Born.

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.

Thought Provoking

It's Quite Easy To Make A Load Of People Laugh, It's Often A Reflex Action, But I Think To Make Them Cry Is Harder Without Manipulating Them.

I Don't See Myself As Part Of An Acting Fraternity Or A Comedy Fraternity.

My Physique Is Down To 20 Years Of Eating Cheese.

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Just Looking At All The Faces Here Reminds Me Of Some Of The Great Work That Was Done This Year . . . By Cosmetic Surgeons.

Being On The Edge Isn't As Safe, But The View Is Better

I Don't Think A Comedian Should Even Be Concerned With Being Cool Or Sexy, As Soon As You Do, You Aren't A Comedian Any More. Looks Are Still The Most Important Thing For Women When It Comes To Meeting A Partner. And That's Fair Enough, But A Sense Of Humour Is Really Important Too. For Starters, It's A Great Indicator Of Whether You Are Going To Get On. If The First Time You Go On A Date You Don't Find Each Other Funny, There's A Fundamental Problem.

I Think, As A Comedian, The Funniest You Can Be Is With People You Know, And [whom] You've Known For Years, In A Pub. That's As Funny As You Get, And So The Aim [while Stand-up] Is To Get That Funny On Stage With 5,000 Strangers, To Get That Funny In A Room Where People Shouldn't Be Listening But They Are.

It Will Be Great To Play A Short, Fat Sweaty Loser For A Change.

There Are So Many Films Now Where You Know The Story Is A Supporting Role To The Visual Effects.

Blasphemy: A Law To Protect An All-powerful, Supernatural Deity From Getting Its Feelings Hurt.

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The Best Advice I've Ever Received Is, 'no One Else Knows What They're Doing Either.

I'm Quite Squeamish, Really. I'm Philistine And Unsophisticated - Not Because Of My Great Discerning Palate But Other Reasons. Some Are Moral Grounds, Some Texture.

If David Brent Is The Best Thing That I Ever Come Up With, Then So Be It. What Are You Supposed To Do, Time The Best Thing You Do For Just Before You Die?

You Won't Burn In Hell. But Be Nice Anyway.

Hollywood Is Responsible For Some Of The Greatest And Worst Movies Of All Time!

We Shouldn't Even Need The Word 'atheism'. If People Didn't Invent Ridiculous Imaginary Gods, Rational People Wouldn't Have To Deny Them.

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.

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Someone Trying To Be Funny Probably Isn't As Funny As Someone Who Doesn't Want To Be Funny But Is And Can't Help It. Someone Being Serious Or Angry Might Be Funny. If You Get Angry, The First Thing I Want To Do Is Laugh Because I Don't Know Why You're Getting That Angry. Pathos Makes Me Laugh, Funerals Make Me Laugh.

The Grass Isn't Always Greener On The Other Side!

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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.

Just Because You're Offended, Doesn't Mean You're Right.

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?

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!

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Pol Pot - He Rounded Up Anybody He Thought Was Intellectual And Had Them Executed. And How He Told Someone Was Intellectual Or Not Was Whether They Wore Glasses. If They're That Clever, Take Them Off When They See Him Coming!

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I Don't Do Anything For The Money.

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Saying Atheism Is A Belief System Is Like Saying Not Going Skiing Is A Hobby.

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Atheism Is The Lack Of Belief In A God (or Gods). It Makes No Claim. It Merely Rejects The Claim That A God (or Gods) Exists. Nothing More.

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For Every Wacky Postcard, There's A Million People Waiting To Buy It, And For Every $10 Million Of Those Things, There's One Rembrandt. Purposely, I Think I Want To Aim At Doing Something That A Lot Of People Won't Like. I'm Just Worried That It Looks Like I've Compared My Work With Rembrandt. "gervais Says He's Better Than Rembrandt!".

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.

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.

Where's Our Paul Newmans? Where's Our Robert Redfords? We've Got Jason Statham, Who Is Great... Blue Collar And Cool, Which Is Fantastic. And We've Got Hugh Grant, Which Is Great. But Where's This Crossover, This Blue Collar Guy Who Is Cool? Where Is Our James Dean? Where Is Our John Travolta And Steve Mcqueen?

Why Buy A Book When You Can Join A Library?

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I'd Like To Thank God For Making Me An Atheist.

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You Do Your Own Thing And You See If You Survive.

Growing Up, The Two Things That Made My Blood Boil Were Religious Intolerance And Animal Cruelty. I’ve Never Understood It. I Can’t Stand To Have An Animal In Pain.

Wearing Cosmetics That Were Tested On Animals Makes You Ugly On The Inside

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With 'the Office' And 'extras' I've Always Snuck In A Little Bit Of Heart And Pathos - And Drama, Which Is Fun.

Do This Or You’ll Burn In Hell.

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No One Wants To See Cool People Doing Brilliantly. I Want To See The Struggle. That's The Fun Bit.

I Think Everyone Has The Ability To Be Loved.

People Think "the Office" Was Improvised, But It's All On The Page. We Do That Because What We Found Is That In The Early Days Of "the Office," We Went In With It Sort Of 80 Percent Scripted And We Did Some Things And Then We Improv'd And We Did - You Know, And It Gets A Laugh On The Floor Because It's The First Time They've Heard It.

When You Get Back Into The Editing Suite In The Cold Light Of Day, The Written Stuff Is Better.

When Someone Thanks God, I Don't Get Offended.

You Try To Make Characters You Care About, And I Think Realism Helps. Even Though This Is A High Concept, The Characters Have Got To Be Real.

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.

I've Got The Attention Span Of A Child.

Mondays Are Fine. It's Your Life That Sucks

I Feel That A Lot Of British Comedy Is Often Too Bombastic, Too Obvious, Dressing Up And Shouting And Pulling Funny Faces.

Everyone Is Entitled To Their Opinion, But If You Believe In God, You're Wrong.

I Was Okay With Singing. I Always Sneak A Song Into Everything I Do. Dancing, A Little Awkward. Little Embarrassed About That. I Don't Move Well. But I Was With A Frog, So It Doesn't Matter. I'll Do Anything With A Frog, That's My Motto. He's Great With Tap-dancing Or Flap-dancing On My Head. So No One's Going To Be Looking At Me When We're Doing That Dance. They're Going To Be Saying, 'there's A Frog Dancing'.

You Now Have The Least Amount Of Time You've Ever Had, To Do Everything You've Ever Wanted To Do. Enjoy Your Life. You Only Get One

Enjoy Your Life

I Still See Myself As A Bit Of A Cottage Industry. Being In A Room Creating Stuff And Seeing If Anyone Wants It, As Opposed To Going To Work For Someone.

She Said, 'i'm Your Biggest Fan,' And I Said, 'who Are You?' She Said, 'paris Hilton.'

Someone Asked Me What Three Things I Would Save If My House Was On Fire. I Said My Cat, My Salamander And One Of The Twins.

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Animals Are Not Here For Us To Do As We Please With. We Are Not Their Superiors, We Are Their Equals. We Are Their Family. Be Kind To Them.

I Get So Sick Of People Asking: "what's Your Demographic?" Or: "oh We've Got To Aim This At..." No, You Have To Aim It At You. You Do The Thing You Would Love... Make The Thing You Would Love And Be Proud Of. There's Enough People In The World That, If You Do That And Do It Well As A Single Vision, They'll Go: "that's My Favourite Thing Ever!"

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The Simple Fact Is, Offense Is Taken, Not Given.

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Celebrities, Make It Harder For Hackers To Get Nude Pics Of You From Your Computer By Not Putting Nude Pics Of Yourself On The Computer.

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.

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.

It's Better To Create Something That Others Criticise Than To Create Nothing And Criticise Others. Go Create, Have Fun!!

Everyday Life Is Interesting Enough, Whether It Be In An Office Or Being Ignored On The Set Of Something Supposedly More Glamorous.

I've Always Dabbled. I've Always Nearly Written A Book, I've Always Tried Painting, I've Always Tried To Make Something Out Of Ideas, Really. It Was Never A Plan. I Never Thought, "right. First I'll Get Famous, And Then I'll Do A Book.

Being Honest Is What Counts. To Make The Ordinary Extraordinary Is So Much Better Than Starting With The Extraordinary.

Ordinary Extraordinary

We Want To See A Struggle. We Want To See People Falling Over But Getting Themselves Back Up On Their Feet, And That's What's Extraordinary- Ordinary People And Their Struggle. There's Nothing As Interesting As Real Life Out Your Window. You Walk Down The Street For Half An Hour, I'll Give You Half An Hour Of Drama.

I Never Had A Plan. I Just Sort Of Ambled Along, Doing Exactly What I Wanted Every Day Of My Life.

I've Never Regretted Saying No To Anything, Or Finishing Something. When I'm In The Middle Of Doing Something I Love, I Can Have A Better Idea, And I'll Go, "oh God, I Can't Finish This." Maybe I've Got Some Sort Of Disorder.

The World Is Bigger Than All The Parts. That's The Important Thing, And One Thing Can Throw Everything Off Kilter. And You Must Never Let Yourself Off. You'll Let Yourself Off By Mistake. So You Shouldn't Do It Consciously. You Have To Be Above It All And Just Be Very Disciplined With It. Just Be Very Disciplined With It.

Opinions Don't Affect Facts. But Facts Should Affect Opinions, And Do, If You're Rational

The Truth Doesn't Hurt. Whatever It Is, It Doesn't Hurt. It's Better To Know The Truth.

That’s The Other Thing I Learned That Day, That The Truth, However Shocking Or Uncomfortable, In The End Leads To Liberation And Dignity.

The Only Reason I Work Out Is So I Can Eat More Cheese.

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?"

To Complain About Critics In A Business Is Like A Sailor Complaining About The Waves. Go Back To The Beach If You Don't Like It.

Just Because You're Offended, Doesn't Mean You're Right. Some People Are Offended By Mixed Marriage, Gay People, Atheism. So What? F*** 'em.

I Want To Get All The Nations Of The World Together, It Doesn't Matter What Colour Or Creed, And I Want To Sit Them Down And Say: "guys, The Office Is Still Available On Dvd."

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.

I Don't Feel Any Pressure At All Because I Don't Care. That's An Occupational Hazard... But If You're Doing Anything Of Any Worth, And Not Doing Something That's Safe And Anodyne And Trying To Be Populist And A National Treasure, Then You've Got To Assume That As Many People Hate What You Do - And You - As Like What You Do And Like You.

Science Seeks The Truth. And It Does Not Discriminate. For Better Or Worse It Finds Things Out. Science Is Humble. It Knows What It Knows And It Knows What It Doesn’t Know. It Bases Its Conclusions And Beliefs On Hard Evidence -- Evidence That Is Constantly Updated And Upgraded. It Doesn’t Get Offended When New Facts Come Along. It Embraces The Body Of Knowledge. It Doesn’t Hold On To Medieval Practices Because They Are Tradition.

I Like Every Part [of The Film Process ] Except The Business And Admin Stuff. The Initial Idea. Writing. Re-writing. Casting. Directing, Editing. If I Had To Chose I'd Say Writing, Followed By Putting Music On The Picture. That Is Magical.

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.

It's Going To Be A Night Of Partying And Heavy Drinking. Or As Charlie Sheen Calls It: Breakfast.

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.

[as A Kid] I Did Enjoy Making People Laugh But I Was Also Attracted To Funny People. I'm [still] Quite Happy To Not Be The One Trying To Make Other People Laugh. I'm Happy Laughing At Someone Else. I Enjoy Laughing And I'll Happily Be The One Just Laughing All Night If You Can Make Me Laugh.

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