Rowan Atkinson Best Quotes & Sayings

I have to say that I've always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can't let go. — Rowan Atkinson

Loved the show as a child and felt I could not do it justice. [on turning down the role of the new Doctor Who — Rowan Atkinson

For the first three months I knew him, I thought Lassie was Rowan Atkinson. — Shawn Spencer

Having spent a substantial part of my career parodying religious figures from my own Christian background, I am aghast at the notion that it could, in effect, be made illegal to imply ridicule of a religion or to lampoon religious figures. — Rowan Atkinson

Funny things tend not to happen to me. I am not a natural comic. I need to think about things a lot before I can be even remotely amusing. — Rowan Atkinson

Mr. Bean is at his best when he is not using words, but I am equally at home in both verbal and nonverbal expression. — Rowan Atkinson

And, we put a lot more value, or at least I personally put a lot more value, on the creative values and creative challenges of something than the commercial necessities. — Rowan Atkinson

For telling a good and incisive religious joke, you should be praised. For telling a bad one, you should be ridiculed and reviled. The idea that you could be prosecuted for the telling of either is quite fantastic. — Rowan Atkinson

The path of my life is strewn with cow pats from the devil's own satanic herd! — Rowan Atkinson

The Scarlet Pimpernel is the most over-rated human being since Judas Iscariot won the A.D.31 'Best Disciple' competition. — Rowan Atkinson

I would return to the Blackadder character if the opportunity came up. I have no qualms about that at all. — Rowan Atkinson

Of course, some would say if you have a performing inclination, then you should become a lawyer. That's a platform we use, or a priest. You know, anywhere you lecture and pontificate to people. — Rowan Atkinson

Lord, thy one-liners are as good as thy tricks. Thou art indeed an all-round family entertainer. — Rowan Atkinson

I think I have an inner confidence that my tastes are pretty simple, that what I find funny finds a wide audience. I'm not particularly intellectual or clever or minority-focused in my creative instincts. And I'm certainly not aware of suppressing more sophisticated ambitions. — Rowan Atkinson

I like to juggle with one ball at a time. Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time. — Rowan Atkinson

I'm as poor as a church mouse, that's just had an enormous tax bill on the very day his wife ran off with another mouse, taking all the cheese. — Rowan Atkinson

To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.
It all points to the promotion of the idea that there should be a right not to be offended. But in my view the right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended. The right to ridicule is far more important to society than any right not to be ridiculed because one in my view represents openness - and the other represents oppression — Rowan Atkinson

I love walking in the rain because no one can see me crying — Rowan Atkinson

I feel as though the camera is almost a kind of voyeur in Mr. Bean's life, and you just watch this bizarre man going about his life in the way that he wants to. — Rowan Atkinson

I'm not a collector. I don't like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate. — Rowan Atkinson

But, actually, so many of the clerics that I've met, particularly the Church of England clerics, are people of such extraordinary smugness and arrogance and conceitedness who are extraordinarily presumptuous about the significance of their position in society. — Rowan Atkinson

I consider myself more of a visual comedian than a physical one. — Rowan Atkinson

I have gotten a couple of letters meant for Mr. Bean aka Rowan Atkinson. These letters would say things like, 'You're so funny, you make me laugh, with your big rubbery face,' and I would say, 'You can't mean me!' — Sean Bean

The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult. — Rowan Atkinson

There is always that age-old thing about England and America being divided by a common language. You think that because we speak English and you speak English that you're bound to understand and like everything that we do. And of course you don't. — Rowan Atkinson

I find his films about as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and discovering there's a gas bill tied to it. — Rowan Atkinson

But I always feel that whatever I do, I could do better. I suppose it is perfectionism. — Rowan Atkinson

It's a bit disconcerting being treated like Madonna. — Rowan Atkinson

Your services might be as useful as a barbershop on the steps of a guillotine. — Rowan Atkinson

I want to express myself in a different way. I have a performing inclination. — Rowan Atkinson

In TV, and in particular in commercials, you don't really need to explain very much at all - you just say he's a spy and he's a little bit theatrical and overblown and smug and he's not very good at his job. — Rowan Atkinson

People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I'll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn't the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer. — Rowan Atkinson

In the modern media age we are rarely surprised by what we see. Whether it's on television or film or in the theatre, everything is so advertised, so trailed, that most entertainment is merely what you thought it was going to be like. — Rowan Atkinson

Mr. Bean is essentially a child trapped in the body of a man. All cultures identify with children in a similar way, so he has this bizarre global outreach. — Rowan Atkinson