Gervais S Quotes & Sayings

Your God is the best God. In fact, he's the only God. All other Gods are ridiculous, made up rubbish. Not yours though. Yours is real. — Ricky Gervais

I think sometimes you get given a good pile of goodwill, and it's whether you use it up in the first six months or spread it out over a career. — Ricky Gervais

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!" — Ricky Gervais

Mondays are fine. It's your life that sucks. — Ricky Gervais

If you can't joke about the most horrendous things in the world, what's the point of jokes? What's the point in having humor? Humor is to get us over terrible things. — Ricky Gervais

Same sex marriage isn't gay privilege, it's equal rights. Privilege would be something like gay people not paying taxes. Like churches don't. — Ricky Gervais

You can drive 1,000 miles across America and find yourself, whereas if you drive a few miles from Slough you're in London anyway, or you hit Wales and you're in another country! Also, wherever you are in England it's still raining. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

I feel sorry for people in power. I feel sorry for the Queen, in a way, that she hasn't had a normal life. It'd difficult for me to hate anyone. Immediately someone's unpopular, I feel sorry for them. — Ricky Gervais

I think doing something creative is the most important thing to me, and I think it's probably just good for the soul for anyone, whatever it is. You don't have to be a film director - you can do gardening or something - but I think everyone needs to create something. — Ricky Gervais

I am not a wolf in sheep's clothing, I'm a wolf in wolf's clothing. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

That's why I'm very wise [in] the way I choose the remixes 'cuz I know that the song has to transcend well. You already have a base, instead of me just doing my own production and I don't have to start from scratch. — Cedric Gervais

The truth doesn't hurt. Whatever it is, it doesn't hurt. It's better to know the truth. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

You don't have a wife then? No family of your own?" Sophia kept her tone light, stealing furtive glances at Quinn's hawk's-beak nose and heavy brow between questions.
"Not as yet, miss."
"But surely you've a sweetheart for Saturdays?"
Quinn gave a rough laugh. "Oh, I've one for every day of the week, Miss Turner."
Sophia stilled her charcoal and lifted an eyebrow. "What a relief to learn that your calendar is full, Mr. Quinn. For I warn you, I shan't be tempted to stray from Gervais. — Tessa Dare

I always chose all my friends on whether they were funny. What's a better way to pass the time than laughing or smiling? — Ricky Gervais

With Ricky Gervais, it's all shades of wrong, it's my kind of humor. — Emily Blunt

Hotel bars are pretty good. No one bothers me there. Restaurants are safe. People are quite respectful when you're eating. But what I never do now is go to a busy bar on the weekend, or after 8 o'clock at night. That's the danger zone. Also being trapped. Never go on the Metro, or a bus. — Ricky Gervais

Same-sex marriage is not a gay privilege, it's equal rights ... — Ricky Gervais

I think the social faux par is probably what most people fear ... more people fear public speaking than death and that's because we don't want to make a fool of ourselves. It's fundamental. — Ricky Gervais

It's going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking. Or as Charlie Sheen calls it: Breakfast. — Ricky Gervais

When I direct my own scripts, it's much easier as it's been in my head for a year already. What I love about this is having an idea and seeing it come to fruition onscreen. I would like to direct someone else's script one day, but I might not get round to it before I die - you can't legislate for being hit by a bus! — Ricky Gervais

That's the amazing thing about life. You can just rub it out, like a blackboard, and start again. — Ricky Gervais

It's a privilege to be in such a great category of people and ... I don't believe in God, so I'd like to thank dogs. Dogs have given me everything. — Ricky Gervais

I think Hollywood's gotten more reactionary and conservative over the years, because there's no longer art in Hollywood. Art suffers in Hollywood. — Ricky Gervais

A joke isn't yours. It's used and you don't know where it's been. — Ricky Gervais

If you walked around like David Bowie in 1973 in Reading, you'd get beaten up. The 1970s in a small town was more like the 1950s.. and that's the truth. The backdrop was probably Victorian. — Ricky Gervais

I know how much embarrassment hurts, and I love it as a theme because you can keep digging a hole. It's just an endless well, embarrassment. — Ricky Gervais

Where there's a will - there's a relative! — Ricky Gervais

I'm basically a 'do unto others' type person. I don't have any religious feelings because I'm an atheist, but I live my life like there's a God. And if there was he'd probably love me. — Ricky Gervais

I'll watch Ricky Gervais in anything he does. The guy's hilarious. — Danny DeVito

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. — Ricky Gervais

The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn't. It's not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can't have your own facts. — Ricky Gervais

I'm not a person that's easily embarrassed, but I'm embarrassed for other people. — Ricky Gervais

No one wants to see cool people doing brilliantly. I want to see the struggle. That's the fun bit. — Ricky Gervais

Comedy and drama are different sides of the same coin. And the thing about comedy and drama is about likability. It's about character first. It's about story. And for me, it's about empathy, and I think the realer someone is, the further you can go either way with them. — Ricky Gervais

And there's a period where everyone's buying those and it's really bad because no one is Larry David or Ricky Gervais. And then they don't work and networks stop wanting to buy them, but because they wanted to buy them before the producer wanted to make them, the producers are still hanging on to wanting to make them. — B. J. Porter

People think that it's fun to meet celebrities - but what do you mean by "celebrity"? Someone you recognise? What are they famous for? It's people who've done something that are exciting. — Ricky Gervais

I downloaded a Ricky Gervais podcast once at the persistent urging of a friend and found it funny but distracting - if I'm online, I'm surfing, which means I'm distracted from the podcast. So it's a form that doesn't really work for me. — Rachel Sklar

Comedy scares me a lot. I feel like it's way harder than drama. I think my safety net is definitely drama, and I would love to kind of be able to be able to push into the comedy world and do something kind of like a Christopher Guest kind of style show. That, to me, is my kind of comedy. Like, Ricky Gervais comedy. That's my kind of thing. — Tatiana Maslany

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? — Ricky Gervais

There's no difference between fame and infamy now. There's a new school of professional famous people that don't do anything. They don't create anything. — Ricky Gervais

We only do what we think is good and what we're happy with. I do that in stand-up, I even do it with my children's books. I don't do market research, I don't have focus groups, I don't care. I don't care if it fails, honestly. I'd rather have something that's completely mine fail than something succeed that I'm not proud of. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

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! — Ricky Gervais

People have let me down in the past. I've loved something, and it's become a disgrace. I'd rather start again. — Ricky Gervais

It's better to create something that others criticise than to create nothing and criticise others. Go create, have fun!! — Ricky Gervais

When you do a remix, obviously you get a beautiful melody, you get the beautiful vocals - everything is already set up. You already have a base, which means all I gotta to do is create the music behind, 'cuz it's already beautiful. — Cedric Gervais

Sometimes I'll be confident and go into a shop and say, "Hello, yeah, all right," and then the next day, if someone looks at me or talks to me, I just don't know what to do. If you're walking down the street with a baseball cap, you might be fine. But if you're in a pub and you see someone look at you, you think the worst thing in the world now is if they come over. It's a really weird feeling. — Ricky Gervais

I like characters like Ignatius Reilly in 'A Confederacy of Dunces' and Ricky Gervais's character in 'The Office.' They think one thing about themselves, but the truth is as far from that as it can be. So I began to think about how to put that kind of character in a book for kids. — Stephan Pastis

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. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity. — Ricky Gervais

Even if it's such a lowly art as TV, you've got to get stuff off your chest, because that's what makes something different and original, your particular take on stuff. — Ricky Gervais

The world is not entirely comic and it's not entirely dramatic. You have a laugh and then someone finds a lump and you deal with that. Because that is what life is like. — Ricky Gervais

Try something. And never be afraid to fail. That failure is useful too. It's just another building block. — Ricky Gervais

It's not terrible, I guess, but if Ricky Gervais was half as talented as me, maybe the show would actually be funny once in a while. — Zach Braff

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?". — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

I had great memories of growing up in a working class estate. I remember it being sunny all the time. So we're putting that on screen. It's not people wallowing in degradation. — Ricky Gervais

It was great having them around and I have to say pretty weird seeing them all grown up! Plus we have Jeremy Piven; and Ricky Gervais agreed to be in it and Antonio Banderas has a cameo in and that's a testament to Robert. He's such a good director and such a good guy. He gets everybody, because everyone wants to work with him. — Joel McHale

I like big escapist films. It's odd because the type of comedian I am and the things I do when I'm writing and directing myself usually deal with the darker side of the human psyche and excruciating social faux pas. I often deal in taboos and the subjects I do as a stand-up are quite challenging. But my film roles have been much more fun and escapist. — Ricky Gervais

I use people's real voices because I want realism. So often I mention the actors' physicality because I want it to be like a real documentary. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

As an atheist, I see nothing "wrong" in believing in a God. I don't think there is a God, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that's fine with me. It's when belief starts infringing on other people's rights when it worries me. I would never deny your right to believe in a God. I would just rather you didn't kill people who believe in a different God, say. Or stone someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral. It's strange that anyone who believes that an all-powerful all-knowing, omniscient power responsible for everything that happens, would also want to judge and punish people for what they are. — Ricky Gervais

Real racist jokes or sexist jokes aren't funny - not because they're offensive, but because they're not true. As soon as a joke is based on an untruth, it's not funny. — Ricky Gervais

That's what life is, it's the small struggles. You walk down the street for half an hour, you see half an hour of drama. You don't need convoluted plot lines. You don't need long-lost brothers. You don't need it's set on the future; it's set on the moon. — Ricky Gervais

I think that's the fundamental thing - you can go anywhere you like as long as you're following a character that the audience likes and understands. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

It's a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It's the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for. — Ricky Gervais

When you think of things like The Sopranos, The Wire, Damages, they are beating film on a regular basis. Most films are terrible. It's only the 2% that are good. There's things you can do on TV which you can't do on film. There is something about those episodic, serialisations that are grand and operatic. — Ricky Gervais

You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. It doesn't matter what that is. It doesn't matter if it's a table or a film or gardening - everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, I did that. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

I've got three friends that you'd call famous, but I'm sure after 20 years, most of my friends will be famous or work in television, because that's the nature of what your work is. When I was working in an office, most of my friends worked in offices. — Ricky Gervais

I'm not a big comedy show-watcher, but I love Ricky Gervais' stuff and Sacha Baron Cohen's things. But I'm not an expert on them. I've seen them once. — Chris Lilley

A world without any lies at all is not a good world, because it's artless and because there are no white lies, no flattery. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

It's interesting that music in this country ... we sort of sold something to America with The Beatles and they sold something back. And we've never been afraid to embrace American style rock 'n' roll and make it our own over here. — Ricky Gervais

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ... Then he said, "Let there be light." Which means he made the entire universe in the dark! How fucking good is that? He's brilliant. — Ricky Gervais

America champions the underdog. We champion the underdog until he's not the underdog anymore, and he annoys us. — Ricky Gervais

Well, on a personal level, I would never want to take on a character who didn't have some redeemable qualities. Even the worst of people, such as Michael Scott in The Office [Carell's character in the US version of the Ricky Gervais sitcom], have some decent human qualities that you can latch onto. — Steve Carell

You see reality TV and it's not reality TV. It's contrived and everything is plotted and scripted nearly. Documentaries are the same and just as bad. — Ricky Gervais

And now all this rot about invisible injuries and interrupting Prince Gervais as he and I don't see what business it is of I can do what I like and I think you're simply and that's that!
Una paused there, wondering if what she'd just said had made a lick of sense. Judging from Prince Aethelbald's face, it hadn't. — Anne Elisabeth Stengl

My ultimate is Peter Sellers - his ability to go broad and somehow humanize that and be hilarious at the same time. He was just relatable, real at the same time as insane. I find Ricky Gervais absolutely hilarious. Steve Martin is another hero of mine - he's a genius. — Hank Azaria

Ignorance might be bliss for the ignorant, but for the rest of us it's a right fucking pain in the arse — Ricky Gervais

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'. — Ricky Gervais

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. — Ricky Gervais

In a safe Western world where we're not being shot at and we're not starving, the worst thing that happens to us most days is someone's rude to us, or we accidentally insult someone. Social faux pas is the worst thing that happens to most people, most days, so we've got to concentrate on that, really. — Ricky Gervais

Got a proper job at 28. Gave it up to try comedy at 38. Decided to get fit and healthy at 48. It's never too late. But do it now — Ricky Gervais

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!". — Ricky Gervais