Steve Coogan Quotes & Sayings

To me, I like and understand ritual and I think it is important. Things that we do that give us comfort are important. Like Christmas, I like to go into a church and hear the carols sung. There's a comfort of actually going inside of a church, I find them serene. They're unchanging. — Steve Coogan

You really have got lots of issues! Yeah, of 'What Car Magazine'! — Steve Coogan

I did not become successful in my work through embracing or engaging in celebrity culture. I never signed away my privacy in exchange for success. — Steve Coogan

When you tour you become more intimate with your audience. It's like I need reassurance that they like me or at least find me relevant. And that I can still do it. — Steve Coogan

I think you need to have the guts to not use comedy. Often, the people that work in comedy use a joke to avoid contemplation. — Steve Coogan

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

Convoy? Michael, you're hanging around with a man who uses a collective term for a single vehicle. — Steve Coogan

I enjoy comedy but it can become wearisome. — Steve Coogan

What terrifies me is that I might somehow endorse that view so people think they don't have to read books anymore. — Steve Coogan

Actually the best thing I did was to get thrown out by my wife. She's living with a fitness instructor. He drinks that yellow stuff in tins. He's an idiot. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

When Americans talks about Europeans, they are thinking Britain and the rest of Europe. When we [ Britains] talk about Europeans, we talk about everywhere else. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

It's arguably the best newspaper in the world. — Steve Coogan

It may seem like improv because it flows quite naturally, and a little bit of leeway for improvisation is good, but you have to be judicious with it. So it's good, but sometimes people deify it. You can't improvise your way out of a paper hat. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

I've always been drawn to discomfort and that limbo of unease you get between comedy and tragedy. Making people laugh one moment and the next making them feel really uncomfortable. — Steve Coogan

I think it's always funny when you see kids do Shakespeare. — Steve Coogan

I'm a single guy now and can do what I like. As my agent said, so long as it's not a live man or a dead woman, I'll be fine. And that, hand on heart, is unlikely to happen. — Steve Coogan

My father worked for IBM. My mother raised us kids. There were six of us, and a couple of extra foster kids at any given time. — Steve Coogan

Going to a grammar school, you mixed with all sorts of different types and I used to listen to how they talked. When I did my imitations, I could sound like someone really rough, or I could sound like a cabinet minister. — Steve Coogan

I'm not like a politician that goes around talking about family values. And I can't get fired from being a funny person because I did something that most people are disapproving of. I think people are just obsessed with this morality that people perceive as being the right and wrong way of doing stuff. — Steve Coogan

I always find it easier to portray myself as being unlikeable and idiotic; to actually play a character that is likeable and engages the audience is far more difficult. It's a more subtle kind of challenge. — Steve Coogan

The Church at its best is about empowering the disempowered and giving voice to the dispossessed and not putting a price on everything and not being about the bottom line and not worshipping the market or everything that is material. — Steve Coogan

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

I like the British public. There is something in this country called tall poppy syndrome. You're good but you're not that good, pal, OK? The natural state of our nation is slightly miserable, and probably the healthier for it. In America you don't get a key down the side of your Bentley ... — Steve Coogan

When I see friends from school I think they've all grown old and I've stayed the same. — Steve Coogan

I use improvisation as a writing tool to help produce material that goes into a script, but a well-crafted script shouldn't sound scripted, and oftentimes people confuse something that looks like improvisation for what is actually a very well-written script that is well-acted. — Steve Coogan

I want my work to be judged, not me. — Steve Coogan

If you chase something too desperately, it eludes you. — Steve Coogan

London audiences are tricky, too. They don't laugh as much as the Northern audiences because, and I hate to say this, they are a bit cleverer normally, and they are picking up on all the little details and listening more carefully. — Steve Coogan

I like to do movies that provoke rather than reinforce conservative values. — Steve Coogan

If you are a great dramatic actor then you often don't know if people are enjoying your stuff at all because they are sitting there in silence. But with comedy it's a simple premise. If it's funny, people laugh. If it's not, they don't. — Steve Coogan

A woman wearing a revealing dress will always be sexier than a naked woman. — Steve Coogan

I like comedy, but I like comedy as a device in drama. It's more interesting for me to use comedy to seduce people into thinking about something serious. If you want to hit a beat in a drama, you can distract people with a little comedy, and you can punch them in the gut with some emotion. — Steve Coogan

The rest of Europe tends to be very comfortable with sexuality. The British and the Americans are kind of hung up about it. — Steve Coogan

I knew lots of Irish ladies in my life who would say daft things and then would just say something incredibly truthful in a very simple way with simple language - a few well chosen words that would take an intellectual five minutes to express. I like that. — Steve Coogan

I don't like big feet. It reminds me of gammon. — Steve Coogan

As soon as I see period costume, I turn off. It's like hearing drama on Radio 4. — Steve Coogan

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

There's something quite joyful about doing comedy which doesn't really need much analysis. I'm not elitist. I like to do crowd-pleasing stuff which is a bit smart, but is just about belly laughs. — Steve Coogan

The Bible, undoubtedly, is a mixed bag. I don't see myself coming back to the Church. I do like the tradition. If you come from a strong culture, you can decide what you agree with and what you don't agree with. If you're given a blank canvas, it's almost harder in life. — Steve Coogan

I don't want to go around making everyone else agree with me. I don't feel the need to do that. — Steve Coogan

I love Sherlock Holmes. I've got all his books, leather-bound. What I thought was great about Sherlock Holmes was that not only was he a supersleuth, he was also a hard worker. Not only did he go out and solve the crimes, he came home and wrote it all down. Fantastic. That's why I admire him. — Steve Coogan

A lot of people can be very scared about making themselves vulnerable and appearing uncool. I don't really give a damn; as long as it's funny, I'll do it [make fun of myself]. — Steve Coogan

The important thing is not to be defined by what others think of you. — Steve Coogan

I don't like comedy that I think is bad comedy, where people are trying to be sick for the sake of it, where there's no intellectual point behind it. I like stuff that's got an underlying point of view. — Steve Coogan

Two thousand years ago, the Holy family had a ramble from Nazareth to Bethlehem - in much the same way as I'm having a ramble from Norwich to Swaffham. Although I'm not comparing myself to Jesus - I don't want to get bogged down in that whole controversy again. — Steve Coogan

It's like aversion therapy. You keep doing scenes over and over again with three women in the bed with you, and we had to do them all in one week. Three girls would step out and another three girls would step into the bed.It sounds like a fantasy but by the end of it, I just wanted to go for a hike on my own in the north of England, in the hills. Because it became a sort of "be careful what you wish for" kinda thing. — Steve Coogan

Got my fungal foot powder? Ah, it's a lifesaver, you know. I'd effectively be disabled if it weren't for these. — Steve Coogan

IT'S OUR IMPERFECTIONS THAT MAKE US VULNERABLE, MAKE US INTERESTING. HOW CAN I MAKE MYSELF A BIT OF AN ASSHOLE AND STILL HAVE HUMANITY ABOUT IT? — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

We're all a bit of a dick. It's the human condition. Nothing to be afraid of. — Steve Coogan

I think there's as much profundity and wisdom in Shakespeare, more so in fact, than those in the Bible. — Steve Coogan

I think if you try to look for something to show off as an actor, vanity can get the better of you. — Steve Coogan

The irony is, of course, that many of the values that I was raised with, that I think are very important, that I hold dear, are the result of a religious faith. — Steve Coogan

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

I'm getting older , so I'm quieting down a bit. — Steve Coogan

It is not true that sex degrades women ... if it is any good. — Steve Coogan

If you got the balls to follow something through, you can end up being the coolest, smartest guy in the room, because you've literally put your ass on the line. — Steve Coogan

I'm an entertainer. I don't go round saying I'm a paragon of virtue, so that is clearly not in the public interest. — Steve Coogan

When you see a crowd of people jumping up and down at a pop concert, all gloriously in the moment, I don't think you'll ever see a comedian there. They'll all be standing at the sides, looking at how it all fits together. — Steve Coogan

The trick is always to write in pairs because if at least two people find it funny, you've immediately halved the odds of it not being funny. — Steve Coogan

I think I'm good with actors. I like directing actors. I also like to show up and just do an acting gig. Where I'm just a hired gun, I don't have to have an opinion on anything.I never got involved in all this stuff because I wanted to control stuff; I got involved in writing and producing because I wasn't getting interesting acting gigs. In a way I'm grateful that I didn't get interesting roles, because it made me pull my finger out and do some work. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

Actors say they do their own stunts for the integrity of the film but I did them because they looked like a lot of fun. — Steve Coogan

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

If you're driving your car and someone winds the window down and gives you the finger and calls you an asshole, instead of giving him the finger back and calling him an asshole back, you just pull a funny face, and he doesn't know how to react to that, because you're using different rules. — Steve Coogan

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

The truth is somewhere in the middle of funny and serious. — Steve Coogan

People come up to me in supermarkets and demand humour. And the less amusing I am, the more they piss themselves. So I say, "I'm doing my shopping, mate, OK?" and the guy will be on the floor in hysterics. Quite odd. Eventually I do have to say something funny so I usually go for something pathetic like, "It's a nice place to shop but I wouldn't like to live here!" and they roar again. Wet themselves. I'm lucky though that I am not massively famous, I can get the Tube without much bother. Must be awful being the Beckhams. — Steve Coogan

I am not a politician going around bragging about family values or putting myself on some ridiculous virtuous pedestal. I write comedy. And I am an actor. I am not going to solve the nation's problems. I don't actually spend my life in the way the tabloids like to think I do. I actually spend 95 percent of it writing comedy. Sober. Well, nearly sober anyway. — Steve Coogan

Knowing about comedy has helped me with the drama. To see people laugh, it's like there are moments of catharsis in the middle of sadness. — Steve Coogan

Depending on which side of the fence you're on, you could argue that the sexual liberation of the late '60s, led to women being emancipated in some ways. That they found a voice during that time, with feminism. It's complicated. — Steve Coogan

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

I don't think I'm kind of universally known. I think in the indie world I'm probably better known than in some mainstream Hollywood terms. — Steve Coogan

There were days when we used to say, what was in today's paper is tomorrow's fish-and-chip paper.When I became successful, I enjoyed myself a little. — Steve Coogan

The great thing is that the funny side of getting old is fuel for my comedy. — Steve Coogan

Look at the 18th century. There was a lot more freedom going on. — Steve Coogan

I'm 47, my girlfriend's 33; she's 14 years younger than me, back of the net! — Steve Coogan

There are conservative values where certain lifestyles are imposed and everybody should have 2.4 children and a dog and a cat and a house and you should feel like God and you should believe in God and you should be a capitalist. I don't buy any of that. — Steve Coogan

I am lucky to be in a profession that is not age dependent. — Steve Coogan

I like the fact that people come together who have shared values, but I don't believe that a man died 2,000 years ago and was crucified on a cross to save me from my original sin. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

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

Two fat ladies, 88! Not that you'd find these ladies at a bingo hall, of course ... they're altogether a higher class of fat lady. — Steve Coogan

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

Big comedy is good, I like things that are big, but good comedy has to be truthful I think and has to reflect some sort of reality. — Steve Coogan

The British often shy away from any cinematic interpretation of real sex. They sometimes have what I call "subtle sex," which is really introspective and has soft music in the background. Either that or it's played for comedy. The British are kind of hung up about sex. They find it kind of titillating and they make jokes about it because they're nervous. — Steve Coogan

When I play myself, I want to be a slightly better person. It just agrees. Everything I play about myself is kind of true, but it's amplified. We all edit, don't we? If you're self-aware, you stop yourself - you know how to behave properly. — Steve Coogan

I'm just a good Catholic boy - I do naughty things and feel guilty about them. — Steve Coogan

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. — Steve Coogan

Hitler was nice to dogs — Steve Coogan

I don't think there's anything outside what comedy can address. — Steve Coogan

There's never any graffiti in the hotel. Although in the Gents a couple of weeks ago I did see someone had drawn a lady's part. Quite detailed. The guy obviously had talent. — Steve Coogan

When it comes to morality, I'd rather have an unfaithful president like Bill Clinton, who tried to reform welfare, than a faithful George Bush who propagated an illegal war on the rest of the world. So that is where my morality stands. — Steve Coogan

Look at all those American preachers who got caught with their pants down. They say one thing and they are doing another. I try to be more honest about it, both in my thinking and my behavior. — Steve Coogan

That's what gives people hope - that you can still love someone from afar and you can still have those feelings across an ocean. — Steve Coogan